Recipe for Pear and Coffee Cakes, From ‘Slow Food Fast Cars’
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Chef Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore know that not everyone will make it out to visit Casa Maria Luigia, their guest house in the Italian countryside. But with the release of their new cookbook, “Slow Food Fast Cars: Casa Maria Luigia — Stories and Recipes,” guests waiting to make the trek can get a taste of the experience at home.
Bottura, who’s behind three Michelin-starred restaurant Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy, and his wife officially opened Casa Maria Luigia to the public in May 2019. The estate houses their collection of cars and motorcycles, as well as guest rooms and tasting-menu restaurant Francescana at Maria Luigia. The cookbook invites readers into their world through 85 recipes that span breakfast, lunch, snacks and dessert, alongside essays and photos of the house’s ambiance and decor.
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Here, the recipe for Pear and Coffee Cakes, excerpted from the book.
Pear and Coffee Cakes
Adapted from “Slow Food Fast Cars” by Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore
Unlike most places in the south of Italy, provinces in the north have a limited offering of winter fruit, but one we can always depend on is the pear. Emilia-Romagna has six pears with Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), and for this recipe we use the Abate Fetel, a variety mostly grown in Emilia. It’s a pear that has a beautiful sweetness and a hint of amaretto-like flavor. Every winter, we are on a mission to create as much as possible with this very beautiful and humble fruit.
The fresh fruit baked into these cakes adds a nice moisture and delicate pear flavor that plays perfectly off the stronger coffee and almond flavors of the crumble.
Makes 12 cakes
INGREDIENTS
Crumble
scant 1 tablespoon (5 g) freshly ground coffee beans
½ cup (100 g) packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon (15 g) unsalted butter
6 tablespoons (35 g) chopped almonds
Coffee cakes
butter, for the pan
½ stick (55 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon (110 g) granulated sugar
1 egg
½ vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 cup (125 g) all-purpose (plain) flour
¾ teaspoon (4 g) baking powder
½ teaspoon (2 g) baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
pinch of salt
scant ½ cup (125 g) greek yogurt
3 ½ oz (100 g) pear, peeled, cored, and coarsely diced (0.2 inch/5 mm)
INSTRUCTIONS
Make the crumble:
In a bowl, mix the ground coffee, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut the butter into the coffee mixture — it will create a sandy texture. Mix in the almonds. Set aside.
Make the coffee cakes:
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C/Gas Mark 4). Grease 12 cups of a mini muffin pan with butter (we use a silicone oval mold with ovals 2 ¾ x 1 ½ inch / 7 x 4 cm in diameter).
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and beat well. Scrape out the seeds from the vanilla bean and add to the mix. Keep mixing until everything is fully incorporated.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda (bicarbonate of soda), and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three additions, always making sure that the first part is well incorporated before adding the next. With a rubber spatula, fold in the yogurt and diced pear.
Scrape the batter into the prepared mini muffin cups or molds filling them three-quarters full. Top each with about 1 tablespoon of the crumble mixture. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature in the pan before removing and serving on a plate.
These cakes are best eaten as soon as possible but can be kept in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Excerpted from “Slow Food Fast Cars”© 2023 by Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore. Photography by Michael Gardenia (Fusillo Lab). Reproduced by permission of Phaidon. All rights reserved.
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