Chocolate and Pear Pudding

I do think having friends over for dinner is one of the biggest pleasures in life. You do a bit of cooking, exchange a bit of gossips, have a bit of laughs, share a tasty home-cooked meal (and share the washing-up afterwards). And you really don't have to cook anything too impressive. It's often simple, familiar and comforting food that people enjoy the most. And there is nothing better to end a lovely meal than a delicious dessert.

Chocolate Pear Pudding, from Nigella Express

1x815g canned pear slices in juice
125g all-purpose flour
75g brown sugar
25g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
100g soft butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence

1) Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C and grease a 22cm square baking dish with butter.
2) Drain the pears and lay them on the base of the dish.
3) Combine butter, eggs and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl and the rest of the ingredients in another. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture. Stir until all ingredients are incorporated into a batter.
4) Spread the batter over the pears and smooth the surface. Bake for approx 25 minutes or until a tester inserted into the centre of the pudding comes out clean.
5) Let stand out of the oven for 5 to 10 minutes and cut into slices. Serve with chocolate sauce or chocolate ice-cream if desired.

This dessert is so easy and quick to make (no surprise since the book is called Nigella Express). The sponge cake layer is moist and soft and the chocolate flavour goes really well with the sweet and tangy pears. We reduced the amount of sugar used in the recipe and thought the level of sweetness was just right. In fact more sugar would probably overpower all the other flavours. We ate the pudding on its own without any sauce and it was really delicious. It is definitely my type of dessert, and definitely the type of dessert for any chocolate-lovers!