A quick and easy pear pudding, this pear pudding cake is a lovely way to enjoy pears! One bowl and no mixer required. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
I debated what to call this delicious pear dessert. It’s not quite a pudding, but not quite a cake, either. So I hedged my bets and called it a pudding cake. Just know that it’s filled with lots of pears, baked in a custard-like batter and topped with an unusual egg/sugar topping that bakes onto the top, upping the custard flavours in this one.
And did I mention easy? This one is one bowl and no mixer needed! If you love baked pears, this dessert is for you, no matter what you call it :)
Ingredients and Substitutions
Pears – you can use any type of pear you like, as long as it’s ripe. I’ve use Bosc pears here, as they are one of my favourites. I also find that they are sold ripe or almost ripe, so you don’t have to wait days to use them.
To prepare, simply peel, then quarter. Use a knife to slice away the core, seeds and the tough membrane that runs up to the stem. Then cut into chunks. Make the size of your chunks somewhat according the to size of your cooking pan. If using smaller ramekins, chop them smaller. For a larger pan, you can keep them larger.
Other ingredients you will need: Eggs, milk, vanilla, sugar, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt and vegetable oil.
Recipe Tips
- I haven’t tested this one with gluten-free flour, but I suspect that a one-for-one gluten free flour should work just fine here. Likewise, I haven’t tested this with milk-alternatives, but it may work here, as well.
- Make sure the puddings are set before pouring on the topping, so it doesn’t sink and disappear into the batter. That should take about 20 minutes in the oven. Return the pudding cakes to the oven until set and golden on top, about 15 minutes longer.
- I’ve used four larger ramekins here. You can use smaller ramekins, where you will probably get 5 or 6 puddings.
- These will rise in the cups, so don’t over-fill. Be sure to bake on top of a baking sheet, too, just in case :)
- These cakes are lovely warm, maybe even with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. They are also nice at room temperature, as well.
- You can cover and refrigerate any left-overs, as it stands up reasonably well in the fridge, to re-warm and enjoy later.
Making Ahead and Storing
These pudding cakes are nice freshly baked and served warm, though they can be made ahead and refrigerated, then re-warmed. Pop into a 350F over loosely covered with foil to re-warm. Store left-overs in the refrigerator.
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Get the Recipe: Pear Pudding Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled
- 1/3 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/3 cup milk, whole or 2% recommended
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable or canola oil, or other neutral oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste
- 2 large eggs
- 4 pears, ripe, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
Topping:
- 1/3 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Garnish:
- Icing/Confectioners' Sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. (regular bake setting/not fan assisted) Prepare 4-6 ramekins (4 large or 5-6 smaller) by lightly buttering or spraying with cooking/baking spray. Set aside.
- Prepare the pears and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Measure out the milk and add the vegetable oil and vanilla to the milk. Pour into bowl with the flour mixture. Add the eggs and stir until smooth. Add the pear and stir to coat.
- Spoon batter into prepared ramekins, dividing evenly between them. Don't over-fill, as these will rise as they bake. Fill no more than about 2/3 full! Place ramekins on a baking sheet and place in preheated oven to bake for 20 minutes.
- While the pudding cakes are baking, prepare the topping. Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Once cooled, stir together the sugar, egg and melted (and cooled) butter until combined and smooth. *Be sure the butter has cooled, or it will cook the egg. Set aside.
- After 20 minutes of baking, remove the pudding cakes from the oven and pour the topping mixture over-top, dividing evenly. Use a spoon to spread evenly, if necessary. Return to the oven and bake an addition 15 minutes, or until set and golden on top.
- Allow to cool at least 5 minutes before serving warm. Serve dusted with icing sugar or alternately, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. These are also good at room temperature. Refrigerate any leftovers.
Notes
More Pear Recipes to Love!
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
This recipe looks great. Â I have 28 pears on hand and they are all ripe. Can these pudding cakes be frozen and thawed at a later time?
Hi Sue, I’m not sure how well these freeze. There an unusual texture with a lot of fruit. I would test freeze one before committing all your pears.
Hi, I love the idea of the recipe and was wondering if I could replace the oil with some butter?Â
Thanks,
Jayne.x
Hi Jayne, I haven’t tried this one with butter, but I think for this recipe, you would want to use melted (and slightly cooled) butter (in the same measure as the oil), rather than solid butter. I feel like it should work fine, with maybe a slightly different texture to the cake. If you try it, let me know how it worked out.
This recipe looks fabulous! What size (ounces) are the large versus small ramekin do you use? I’d like to make this recipe this weekend for 6 people. Not certain if I’ll need to double recipe or not. Thank you.
Hi Melanie, the ramekins shown in the photos here are 4-inches diameter and 2-inches high, which I consider large. They hold a bit more than 1 cup of water. Hope that helps :) Enjoy!
To make one large pudding pear cake, what size dish?
Hi Gail, I haven’t tried this one in one large pan myself. I would think about an 8×8 would be about the right size.
Highly recommended. This reminds me of a much nicer version of a UK school dinner pudding. A quick and easy recipe (no electric mixer required, easy to mix and whip by hand) that went down well with the family. I will make this again but will try it with a bit less sugar next time as it was a bit too sweet for me, especially when served with ice cream. Thank you for posting this.
So glad you enjoyed it Susannah :) Thanks so much!
I made the batter first then prepared the pears and tried to put an equal amount of cut up pears in each ramekin then spooned the batter on top. I wanted it to be fair for everyone. It was so delicious. I have taken this quite a few times when asked to bring a dessert and people are excited just seeing the individual desserts for everyone. Then they taste it! It has been a hit every time. After pear season was over, I began to experiment and have made the dessert with apples, apples and blueberries, peaches, peaches and blueberries and the results have all been fantastic. The peaches and blueberries were frozen and the results were still delightful. I want to try strawberry rhubarb or rhubarb next. I have frozen of each and expect them to be amazing too. Easy recipe with fantastic results every time. People will think you fussed all day. The ramekins lift the dessert to a higher level of presentation and eating.
Hi Lynda, I am so glad you are enjoying it and I love all the variations you’ve tried! I agree, individual desserts are always just extra special :) Thanks so much!
This is a really great recipe. And I love that it’s not sickly sweet. We paired it with some English custard which was delicious.
I’m curious how it would taste if you use brown sugar with the top instead of white sugar. Maybe I’ll try next time
Glad you enjoyed it, Jenalyn. I think it would taste fine with brown sugar, but may not make a crispy top as white sugar does.
I was looking with such envy at the comments where they got their pears for a great price or had too many.
Pears here right now are something like $2.50 per pound and seem scarce at that. I have some jarred pears to use in this recipe so that is what I will be trying.
Hi Carol and jarred pears will work just fine. Other than the brief period when local pears are in season here in the Fall, pears are expensive here, as well.
I have tried this dessert with all kinds of fruit permutations- apples, apples and blueberries, peaches, peaches and blueberries- and they have all been fantastic so don’t limit yourself to pears. If you see something on special, go for it.
These are insane good!! I used an 8×8, but think I’ll do ramekins next time. It was way too easy for me to just eat half the pan! I even got up at 2 am and grabbed more to eat quietly (or so I thought) in bed, it woke my husband up I thought he’d be irritated but he asked if I’d share the rest 😂. The topping really takes it to another level.  Yum!Â
Lol! I love that :) So glad you both enjoyed them. Thanks so much.
A friend has a very productive pear tree and every year I get some. This pear pudding cake is in the oven now. I used buttermilk to replace regular milk. Smells delicious. Grandkids are on the way over. Cool grandma coming up. 🥧
Enjoy! Thanks so much :)
I made this twice tonight. Once for my family and it was sooooo good I made one for my mother in law. We had pears this week 57¢ a pound with five pound limit. I got 15 pounds of pears. And this was a well chosen recipe to try. Kudos to you. Thank you for sharing this recipe. It’s a keeper
Ellen
I’m so glad you all enjoyed it, Ellen! Thanks so much :)
Wow this was so yummy and comforting! Silly me started mixing together all the dry ingredients before I realised the recipe called for milk – which I didn’t have – I still made it as we had loads of pears in the fridge to use up, and I’m so glad because this was still really lovely! I also didn’t have any icing sugar but that wasn’t a problem either. Definitely a recipe I’ll be making again soon, thanks for sharing it!
I’m so glad to hear, Rosie. It’s a wonderful way to enjoy pears :) Thanks so much!
Excellent!
Varied it a bit…added tsp almond emulsion with vanilla, cinnamon to batter and topping, coconut palm sugar (perfect sweetness), grated the pears and used the juice and put all in 8″ round pan. Added 2 long soda spoons of flour to topping.
Will freeze dry all the pears and rehydrate to make this again…yummm.
Thank you
OMG these were freaking delicious! Hubby and toddler love them so much. We served them with ice-cream and it was sooo good. Thank you for sharing!!
So glad you enjoyed it, Lucy! Thanks so much :)
Hi Jennifer. The recipe sounds great but my son can’t have eggs. Do you know if anyone has tried it using egg replacer?
Hi Annette, I haven’t had anyone say they have tried it. This one is a simple custard – milk and eggs, so I’m not sure how an egg replacer would perform, as I’ve never used it myself. That said, I think it would be worth a try. If you do, let me know how it worked out.