Pear Snacking Cake With Brown Butter Glaze

[elleng]

'The first time I encountered a snacking cake, I was a sweet-toothed teenager. But the kitchen was controlled by my parents, health food enthusiasts who thought that rice cakes made a perfectly acceptable midafternoon snack.

This is why I went to my friend Abby’s house nearly every day after school. Her kitchen was a teenager’s paradise. There were boxes of doughnuts, bags of potato chips and chocolate chip cookies, and a steady supply of bagels in the freezer — all to be washed down with undiluted orange or apple juice.

One day, on the counter, was a square pan of cake — not birthday cake, not crumb cake, not tea cake, but unadorned, easy-to-grab snacking cake, a treat seemingly invented to satisfy post-algebra appetites.

Compared with the diet cottage-cheese cake that my mom made when she was feeling indulgent, it was heaven. And ever since then, a homey square of snacking cake, sliced directly from the pan and eaten with a glass of milk, has been a minor obsession of mine.'>>>

1 cup/227 grams unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature, more to grease the pan
1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar
½ cup/100 grams dark brown sugar
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon ground clove
½ teaspoon baking soda
4 large eggs, at room temperature
4 large pears (2 1/4 pounds/1 kilogram), peeled, cored and shredded or finely chopped (to yield 2 1/2 cups)
2 ¾ cups/350 grams all-purpose flour
¾ cup/75 grams rolled oats
½ cup toasted walnuts or pecans, chopped (optional)
FOR THE BROWN BUTTER GLAZE:
5 tablespoons/70 grams unsalted butter
2 tablespoons/25 grams dark brown sugar
1 cup/125 grams confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons/45 milliliters heavy cream or milk, more as needed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018332-pear-snacking-cake-with-brown-butter-glaze

[Warpy]

1. My own favorite is a plain old cake (flour, sugar, eggs, salt, baking powder)

with layers of paper thin slices of either pear or apple sprinkled with a little spiced sugar. The last layer is cake batter with a rather thick coating of spiced sugar. It's absolute heaven and I've usually made it with bread flour, not even bothering to use cake flour.

People have clamored for the recipe. I wish I really had one...

[japple]

2. That sounds wonderful, Warpy. Do you make it like an upside-down cake?

eom

[Warpy]

3. Nerver, it's a right side up cake with a crunchy top layer

and like a layer cake when you cut into it, fruit forming the layers as it bakes. It's lumpy and informal, to be eaten right out of the pan.

Some people have requested it for breakfasts or brunches, but I find it a bit sweet for that. It's a dessert or indulgent snack.