October 31, 2005
Gâteau de Mamy à la Poire
[This is the republication of a post originally featured in October of 2003.]
On Sunday, Marie-Laure came over "pour le goûter". Le goûter is the afternoon snack kids are given when they come out of school around 4. In my family (by that I mean "at my parents'"), it is also called simply le thé, and is practically an institution. Around 5 on weekends, somebody will invariably ask "on fait le thé?" (alternatively "on prend le goûter?"). Cookies or cake (often home-baked by my mother) will be served, washed down by liters of tea. It is a habit I am very fond of, and one that I am always happy to indulge in when I can.
And so, I baked a cake.
I used a family standby called "Gâteau de Mamy". As the name implies, this is my grandmother's recipe, which she calls "Gâteau d'Ella" because it was her dear friend Ella's recipe originally. It's anybody's guess what Ella used to call it. This is in fact an upside down cake, meaning that you lay fresh fruit at the bottom of the cake pan, and then pour the batter on top. Sort of the cake equivalent of the tarte tatin.
The resulting cake is golden, incredibly moist, light and fruity, with a slightly crusty edge, and it is very hard to stop at just one slice. But if you do and there are leftovers, your reward will be that this cake is even better the next day...
Gâteau de Mamy à la Poire
- 125g (1 stick plus 1 Tbsp) salted butter
- 4 large pears or 6 small ones (substitute apples, apricots, plums...)
- 150g (3/4 C) sugar
- 2 eggs
- 60g (1/2 C) all-purpose flour
- 20g (2 tablespoons) ground almonds
- Half of an envelope (1 1/2 tsp) baking powder
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Melt the butter in a small bowl and set aside to cool. Butter a non-stick 8-inch cake pan.
Wash, peel and cut up the pears. Lay the pieces of fruit at the bottom of the pan.
In a food processor or a medium mixing-bowl, blend the sugar with the eggs until the mixture whitens slightly. Add in the flour, almond powder and baking powder, and blend well. Pour in the butter, and blend again. Pour the batter evenly over the fruit, and put into the oven to bake for 40 to 50 minutes.
Let the cake settle on a cooling rack for a few minutes. Invert it on a plate (the fruit side will be on top). If any bit of fruit has stuck to the bottom of the pan, simply scrape them and place them back where they belong on the cake. Use a second plate to invert the cake again (the fruit side will then be at the bottom). Let cool and serve slightly warm or at room temperature.
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Comments (20)
Permalink | Posted by clotilde in Desserts & Sweets
Now this cake sounds really delicious! My mother and I also used to have a "goûter" on Saturdays afternoon... Those were the days...
Posted by escargot gourmand on October 31, 2005 2:42 PMOOOOh, THE famous "French goûter", délectation des grands gourmands...à 16 heures sonnantes et trébuchantes, au restaurant, je me sers systématiquement au moment de partir en pause, ma tartelette aux pores, ou aux figues.
Joli clin d'oeil au passage.
Bon, puis-je m'en servir une part ?
Please..thanks so much, indeed...(the doigt levé...)
Emmanuel
Posted by DELMAS sommelier on October 31, 2005 5:32 PMLovely!!!.J'aimerais être avec vous .
Posted by fleur de sel on October 31, 2005 6:32 PMAha! Perfect timing, I am at my parents and we have a glut of pears thanks to the tree in the garden getting buffetted by the winds. I shall make this cake. Thanks muchly.
Posted by Katie on November 1, 2005 3:39 PMIt seems absolutely amazing. I love pears.
Posted by papilles et pupilles on November 1, 2005 7:29 PMChere Clotilde, so I made the gateau & served for tea today when our friends came. I was sure they will like it, wow, they are great ! I got red pears at the market & they did well, what a lovely cake that is ! The only thing was I baked it at 400F in US oven, the top came out very black but I covered it with powdered sugar, voila, it looked very pretty, merci mille fois. elizabeth
Posted by elizabeth on November 5, 2005 1:04 AMDear Clotilde,
Posted by Deanna on November 7, 2005 10:46 AMI made this gateau over the weekend and it was fabulous. My husband said that it just melted in his mouth. Thank you for your tasty recipes and for giving me the inspiration to try new things. Deanna
Clotilde,
I made this cake on Sunday for tea. My parents loved it! Thank you so much for this simple and delicious recipe!
Posted by Nina on November 7, 2005 10:54 PMAnd here it was a succes as well, very yummy! A bit sweet though, as my pears were quite ripe. Interesting to see how the texture and flavours change while the temerature changes (I had to try straight from the oven, lukewarm and at roomtemp....)today is the 'next day', can't wait 'till teatime!
Posted by Swan on November 8, 2005 9:42 AMQuelle merveille !
Posted by Elvira on November 8, 2005 4:48 PMI had the same experience as Elizabeth. Blackened top but also not quite done after 45 minutes! I recommend baking it at 375 instead of 400...and for the full 50 minutes. So so good! Thank you!
Posted by caroline on November 8, 2005 10:59 PMI'm really glad this turned out well for those of you who tried it, thank you for reporting back!
Elizabeth and Caroline, sorry yours turned out black on top -- oven temps are very difficult because not all ovens have the same accuracy. I hope you'll make it again and tweak the temp!
Posted by clotilde on November 11, 2005 9:14 PMI made the cake this past weekend and had the same results .. black top, a trifle less done inside than I would have liked. Next time I'll try 375. It was still wonderful -- thanks for the recipe!
Posted by Jed on November 21, 2005 7:57 PMI made this for a Thanksgiving get together... I don't know what size French pears are... but I couldn't fit more than 2 small comice and 1/2 a standard sized barlett pear on the bottom of my cake pan! How large are the pear slices supposed to be, Clotilde? Perhaps this is why the cake turned out a tad try where was wasn't any fruit. But it was still good and looked very pretty served fruit side up. (I was also short on eggs and only used 1 1/2 eggs rather than 2 and didn't have any almond powder.)
I tried 375 in an American oven, as everyone suggested. At 40 min, it was all the way done, and the top and sides became brown, but not blackened. The edges was not crusty, however. I used a glass pie dish, but I don't know if that made any difference.
-berkeley girl
Posted by berkeley girl on November 25, 2005 8:20 AMPerhaps this a stupid question, but I just reread your recipe and looked at the photos. It hits me that your uncooked batter looks like a thick liquid while mine was sort of a grainy cream. I used a hand-held mixer to blend the ingredients. I wasn't sure whether "until mixture whitens slightly" and "blend well" meant blend until just incorporated or what. Did I overmix the batter?
-berkeley girl
Posted by berkeley girl on November 26, 2005 9:03 AMI must try this. Tonight.
Posted by Buffy Holt on January 20, 2007 5:52 PMNow I know what to do with my Christmas gift basket that came full of pears from Harry & David.
I will likely use an 8" spring bottom pan so I can avoid all the flipping.
Merci!
Posted by Linda on January 22, 2007 6:07 PMI made this cake, using apples as the fruit and adding a chopped handful or so of almonds to the batter, over the weekend. It came out absolutely incredible, moist, buttery and delicious. I love that it's mostly fruit, but the cake part is so intensely good that it definitely makes its presence felt.
As it seems to have done for some others, mine cooked faster than the recommended time; luckily I was so entranced by the gorgeous scent emanating from the oven that I couldn't resist running into the kitchen for a quick look every five minutes. When it started to get pretty brown, I stuck in a toothpick and was delighted to find I didn't have to wait any more. Then I ate like a quarter of the thing, immediately. How did anyone manage to have leftovers??
Thanks for the recipe, Clothilde - it's so easy, and the result is heavenly!
~ Melissa
Posted by VeggiesPlease on February 5, 2007 3:16 PMDear Clotilde,
I made two of these for Thanksgiving with hopes that they will get better tomorrow, but I couldn't resist slicing into one of the cakes and taking a bite!
I followed your recipe exactly, but then I also added some ground cardamom to the batter. It worked exceptionally well. I also cooked for 40 minutes at 375.
Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Posted by Janice on November 21, 2007 11:37 PMI tried making this with chestnut flour (In the UK, www.shipton-mill.com stock it as a seasonal item). For the first attempt, I just used half-and-half with wheat flour, but the result was so oh-wow-that's-amazing I now use just the chestnut flour. The slight smokiness it goes so well with the fruit.
(I make it in a 20cm square pan, so to scale the recipe I keep the same amount of butter and sugar, but use 120g flour and a third egg.)
Thank you (and your grandmother, and Ella...) for a recipe that shows the goodness of simple things.
Posted by Chris on March 29, 2008 12:19 PMPrivacy. The email addresses you enter will not be used for any other purpose than the sending of this message.