Lemon Polenta Cake with Poached Pear

Name: Lemon Polenta Cake with Poached Pear
Yield: Serves 6–8
Cuisine: Brazilian
Ingredients: 450 g (1 lb) caster sugar; 75 g (2¾ oz) caster sugar; mascarpone cheese, to serve; plain flour, for dusting; 425 g (15 oz) butter, plus more for greasing; 4 large ripe pears, peeled, halved and cored; grated zest of 5 lemons; 450 g (450 g) pine nuts; 200 g (7 oz) fine polenta; 2 tsp baking powder; 5 eggs, lightly beaten; 1 vanilla pod, split and the seeds scraped out

Preparation info

Serves
6–8

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Gate Vegetarian Cookbook

By Adrian Daniel and Michael Daniel

Published 2004

About

Adrian developed this recipe from a dessert he’d had on a trip to Brazil, using polenta rather than maize meal. It makes a nice light pud and is great served with coffee.

Ingredients

4 large ripe pears, peeled, halved and cored
425 g (15 oz) butter, plus more for greasing

Americas
Brazil
Cake
Dessert
Vegetarian
Mediterranean

Method

To make the vanilla sugar syrup, put the sugar in a small pan with 300 ml (10 fl oz) water and the vanilla pod and seeds. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and simmer