Pear-Walnut Upside-Down Cake

Name: Pear-Walnut Upside-Down Cake
Yield: Serves 8 to 10
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons, unsalted butter, melted; 1/2 cup packed (3 1/2 ounces), dark brown sugar; 2 teaspoons, cornstarch; 1/8 teaspoon, salt; 3 ripe but firm, Bosc pears (8 ounces each); 1 cup, walnuts, toasted; 1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces), all-purpose flour; 1/2 teaspoon, salt; 1/4 teaspoon, baking powder; 1/8 teaspoon, baking soda; 3 , large eggs; 1 cup (7 ounces), sugar; 4 tablespoons, unsalted butter, melted; 1/4 cup, vegetable oil

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Appears in Cook's Illustrated January/February 2016, America's Test Kitchen TV

Desserts or Baked Goods

The underrated pear makes for a more refined version of this simple cake—if you know just how to treat it.

SERVES8 to 10

TIME2 hours, plus 2 hours cooling

has video

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

Bosc pears, with their dense flesh, hold their shape after baking, and cutting the pears into wedges allowed them to be baked from raw but remain manageable to eat with the cake. Instead of a sweet, somewhat-dense yellow cake, we made a wal...

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