Chocolate-Pear Tea Bread

By DreiFromBK

Summary: Delicate pears, brown sugar and butter come together with dark chocolate chips to make a specially delicious moist and flavourful quick tea bread. A delightful fall special from ‘Baking with Friends‘ by Kathleen King.Serves 10

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 210 g {1 3/4 cup} plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 100 g {1/2 cup} unsalted butter
• 115 g {3/4 cup firmly packed} brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup applesauce {recipe follows}
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 400 g pears {about 2 cups diced} or 2 large {or 3 small pairs}, chopped
• 150 g {1 cup} dark chocolate chips

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 180C. Lightly butter a (9 X 5 X 3 loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper.
Sift together the plain flour, baking powder and salt. Reserve.
With an electric beater, whisk the butter and brown sugar until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one by one, followed by vanilla extract and applesauce
On low speed beat in the flour mix.
Fold in the chopped pear and chocolate chips with a spatula, and transfer batter to prepared tin.
Even out the top and bake for about an hour until tester inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.
Let it cool in pan for ten minutes. Then gently invert onto cooling rack and remove parchment paper. Gently turn right side up and leave to cool completely before slicing {we couldn’t resist it of course!}