I don’t know if this is the case in most places, but in the town where I grew up, when you graduated from high school, you had a big open house and invited all your high school friends, teachers, and neighbors. Scheduling was, of course, a nightmare, since come June you suddenly had over a hundred kids all trying to schedule parties within the span of a couple weeks while trying to keep from overlapping too much with anyone else.
During those few weeks there was absolutely no need for parents to attempt to cook because we all wound up hopping from party to party, filling up our bellies from the deli platters, crudites trays, and tiered stands bedecked with bars of all flavors – lemon bars, blondies, 7-layer bars… All in all it was a 3-week showcase of quality Midwestern fare (and truly, I say that with a great deal of fondness).
At that age I had developed the standard teenage angsty sense of needing to show how special I was. And since full out coolness wasn’t in the cards, I instead cultivated an interest in high culture, which, while sophom*oric and stilted, also turned out to be sincere. I preened and announced my affection for opera and T.S. Eliot. I sketched and wrote pretentious essays about my thoughts. And I liked fine foods (while also being perfectly happy to stuff my face with Oatmeal Cream Pies or Chewy Chips Ahoy topped with Cool Whip. Ah, the teen years. I’m afraid the cream pies and chips ahoy are the only things I’ve fully outgrown.).
So, for my graduation open house, I asked my mother to have it catered with Indian food, which had only just become available in our area. And, I’m pretty sure I mostly did this because my boyfriend at the time loved Indian food. My party dovetailed with that of next door neighbor, who was (and is) also one of my best friends. We had decided that my house would be the savory food stop, and then she had a dessert buffet. I’m pretty sure I left my party early to go to hers and hover with our friends over the chocolate cakes.
I recently rediscovered a stash of cards that I had received at my graduation open house. Rifling through them, reminiscing, I found one in particular that turned out to be a treasure. It was from a guy friend of mine who was a couple of years older and who was back home from college when he came to my party. He had gotten me a card that he said he thought I would really like because it had a recipe on the front, a recipe for a traditional yogurt cake.
Looking at it now, I’m struck by how remarkably thoughtful that is for a boy of that age, and it makes me feel grateful all over again for the wonderful friends I’ve had through the years. I also realized it was time to make a yogurt cake.
Yogurt cake is a wonderfully simple, traditional French afternoon snack cake. It’s part of the reason why I love the French. IT is similar to a pound cake, but the heaviness of the butter is traded for the freshness and mild tang of yogurt. A bit of oil stirred in at the end gives the cake a golden slightly crackly top crust without weighing down the tender crumb.
Photo by William Brinson
The most traditional version is flavored with just some lemon or other citrus, but a yogurt cake is really a canvas to which you can add all sorts of berries, fruits, or other goodies. Thinking of another classic French dessert, poires belle Helene (which I grew up calling paere bel Helene, and thinking it was a Norwegian dessert), I filled my cake with bites of soft juicy pear, and bittersweet dark chocolate. The result was a wonderful dance of flavors, subtle but certainly not shy. A warm slice of the cake makes a decadent treat on its own. But add a dollop of softly whipped vanilla-scented whipped cream and you’ll find yourself with an ethereal dessert that demands being savored with your eyes closed.
That card has been moved from its shoebox and taken up permanent residence in my little book of recipe notes.
Yogurt Cake with Pear and Dark Chocolate (makes one 8-inch loaf)
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 cup plain yogurt (whole milk yogurt, not low fat)
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 large pear, ripe but still firm, cored and cut into small pieces (leave the skin on)
- 1/2 cup bittersweet (dark) chocolate chunks (good quality, please)
- Preheat your oven to 350F and grease an 8 inch loaf pan with butter. In a small bowl combine all the dry ingredients (flour through salt). In medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, yogurt, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Then, stir in the dry ingredients, a bit at a time, until well blended. Finally, use a rubber scraper to fold the oil into the batter until it is fully incorporated.
- Pour about one-third of the batter into the greased loaf pan. Sprinkle 2/3s of the pear pieces and the chocolate chunks all over the batter. Then, scrape the rest of the batter on top of this and gently spread it smooth. Sprinkle the rest of the pear and chocolate over the top of the loaf and gently press all the pieces down into the batter to partially submerge them.
- Bake in the middle of the oven until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean – 55-60 minutes or so. Then, take the cake out of the oven and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake. Carefully turn the cake out of the pan, and then put it upright on a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature. The cake will keep for several days (refrigerate if it’s more than 2 days), and slices are delicious lightly toasted before eating. Serve with sweetened whipped cream.
Tagged: dark chocolate, easy and delicious, French, high school graduation, pear, yogurt cake
§ 34 Responses to Yogurt cake with pear and dark chocolate
Lisa says:January 29, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Wow, that is a beautiful piece of cake. The pear and chocolate combo sounds so sweet and delicious. I have a linky party going on at my blog called “Sweets for a Saturday” and I’d like to invite you to stop by and link this up.
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- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
January 30, 2011 at 6:44 am
Thanks! I’ll take a look.
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- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
January 30, 2011 at 6:44 am
Thank you. It’s one of my favorites!
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- silverblackbird says:
February 1, 2011 at 9:12 am
Wow this looks so good… I’ve only just discovered the joy of yoghurt cake, and so far I’ve stuck to a tart lemon version, but I’m definitely going to give this one a go as soon as I get hold of some pears! Lovely pics too 🙂
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- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
February 1, 2011 at 2:42 pm
The lemon versions are definitely delicious, but I do hope you give some other fun flavors a try! Yogurt cake lends itself so easily to variation.
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- Olivia says:
February 3, 2011 at 12:50 am
Thanks for sharing the recipe. I baked this yummy cake and brought to a party last night and it was a hit indeed 🙂
See Also30+ Best Middle Eastern Desserts: Baklava & MoreThe Best Carrot CakeStuffing Muffins , Buttery CRUNCHY and QUICK Muffin Tin RecipeMultekrem Recipe (A Whipped Cream and Cloudberries Norwegian Dessert)Reply
- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
February 3, 2011 at 1:50 pm
I am so glad everyone liked it! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
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- Candace Karu says:
February 9, 2011 at 10:52 am
What a delightful recipe…I can’t wait to try it. It manages to combine sophistication with comfort food. Well done!
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- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
February 10, 2011 at 10:32 am
Thanks! Glad you think so.
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- janicedoty says:
February 11, 2011 at 8:00 am
Beautifully written piece with wonderful photos–a pleasure just to read! I will most definitely try this cake/bread–glad I need to stop for groceries today!
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- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
February 11, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed it, and I hope you enjoy the cake too. 🙂
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- Janice says:
February 18, 2011 at 5:32 pm
I made this yesterday and both my older daughter and I LOVE it!! I think I will tweak it just a bit and dust the pear pieces in flour and fold into the whole batter but overall–delicious–thanks for sharing!!
BTW– I added the yogurt to the sugar mix–worked out great.
- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
February 18, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Tossing the pears with a little flour and stirring them through the whole batter would definitely work. I just have a weird thing for putting layers of goodies in my cakes rather than distributing them evenly!
- Peggy Price says:
January 8, 2012 at 7:43 pm
i didnt see where you add the yogurt? So I put it in after the oil?
- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
January 8, 2012 at 8:40 pm
Yes. You put it in with the rest of the wet ingredients (except the oil). Sorry for the confusion.
- Andree says:
February 12, 2011 at 5:38 pm
Hi
This is a terrific recipe. My recipe blog is nothing like yours because cooking is a new thing for me. So I collect recipes and give them total credit. I would like to put this recipe on the blog if you give permission. I have linked my recipe blog to this comment, but in case it doesn’t work, it is at
http://meeyauw-recipes.blogspot.comThank you so much!
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- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
February 13, 2011 at 8:01 am
Hi Andree, You can certainly share my recipe on your blog. All you need to do is give credit to where it came from and link back to this post! I’m so glad to hear that you are getting into cooking, keep up the good work!
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- meeyauw says:
February 13, 2011 at 8:02 am
Thank you! I certainly will link! I’ll be in touch when it’s done. I hope you have a terrific weekend!
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- meeyauw says:
February 13, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Here ’tis! I hope you approve!
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- Becky says:
March 11, 2011 at 9:57 am
Thank you for this recipe. I will try it this weekend.
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- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
March 16, 2011 at 10:35 pm
Hope you enjoy it!
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- Nadine says:
March 20, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Amazing! I made this today and am afraid I’ll eat the whole loaf myself. I added some grated ginger. Wonderful!
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- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
March 20, 2011 at 8:35 pm
The addition of grated ginger sounds yummy!
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- pRiyA says:
May 21, 2011 at 8:01 am
My God, that was one incredible cake. I just made it and I came back to tell you how good it was. Every bit as good as your delicious looking photograph which enticed me to make it. I am one happy person right now 🙂
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- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
May 21, 2011 at 8:32 am
Oh good! I’m very happy to hear you liked it so much.
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- Carolita says:
June 4, 2011 at 12:42 pm
What a beautiful tradition your home town has for graduation. Does it endure, I wonder? And what a wonderful keepsake from a good friend this recipe is. Anyway, this cake sounds divine and I wish I had a pear because i want to make it NOW! Thanks.
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- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
June 5, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Thanks! I think the tradition does still endure, actually. Which is lovely, I think. And, I hope you get a chance to make this cake sometime!
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June 12, 2011 at 10:37 am
Yum, thank you and thank you to your high school friend!
: )
Julie M.
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- Emily (Kuross) Vikre says:
June 15, 2011 at 4:14 pm
I’m sure my high school friend says you’re welcome! 🙂
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February 13, 2012 at 5:23 pm
[…] Once you have the basic cake recipe, you can add extras to make it your own. I saw one recipe for yogurt cake with pear and dark chocolate that looked […]
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- severine says:
November 10, 2016 at 12:28 pm
I love your writing and you pics. I decide on a recipe by the looks of the texture of the food and your cake seems more than perfect. Do you mind sending me exact recipes in grams please or else tell me which conversions to use from cup to grams. Thanks a lot in advance.
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- Linda p says:
February 17, 2018 at 5:28 am
Looks absolutly yummy,thats right up my street looking
forward to trying this 1.Reply
- Nancy says:
March 3, 2018 at 10:17 pm
I love the picture, it lured me into making this cake. I make it at least once a year. It’s something different and I love it! Thank you for the recipe and I enjoyed your story with it!
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Emily (Kuross) Vikre 
Olivia 
Peggy Price 
Carolita 
Nancy 