Pear Sticky Toffee Pudding
Plus easy mug desserts + What to Bake This Weekend!
What To Bake This Weekend
Pumpkin’s not just for October! Looking for a deceptively easy pumpkin recipe? This Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Bundt Cake is simple, beautiful, and packed with fall flavor.
It’s time for Thanksgiving planning! Why not get ready to make the perfect pie with my pie crust guide?
If not pie, you could try one of my other favorite Thanksgiving Recipes. It’s a list of non-pie favorites fit for your holiday table.
Niver Niver Land
I joined my friend and local award-winning restaurateur Tim Niver on his podcast Niver Niver Land and we discussed my unconventional backstory, my new book Zoë Bakes Cookies, how I stay creative, and why I am terrified all the time (in a good way). Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch the episode on YouTube.
Microwave Mug Desserts
Sometimes you just need a super-quick and easy treat for 1 or 2 people and the mug dessert is your answer. These are easy and delicious and come together in minutes (including baking), making them ideal for both late-night stress-baking or a last-minute celebration, I’ve been known to do both. The three Mug Muffins are from the archive for my Extras subscribers and the Chocolate Microwave Mug Cake is available to everyone!
See the recipe below for the Pear Sticky Toffee Pudding, which is baked in a conventional oven for those of you who would prefer that over a microwave.
Exclusive Recipe: Pear Sticky Toffee Pudding
This recipe captured my imagination the second I flipped open Justine Doiron’s new book, Justine Cooks. It is pure autumnal comfort food, super easy, and elegantly sophisticated. Justine managed all of that in one mug! That’s really the premise of her book, to take you on a journey in the kitchen that’s delicious, very doable (even for people who are just starting out on their cooking journey), and mostly plant-based. You probably know Justine by her social media handle @justine_snacks where she joyfully shares her kitchen knowledge. This book has the same spirit and love of cooking but soars beyond the realm of snacking. She’ll take you through every meal of the day and dessert, plus plenty of snacks.
This is the season of the pear. It’s rather short, which makes them even more desirable. Pears are, IMHO, the sexiest fruit. One need only look to the Dutch Masters, Caravaggio, Cézanne, Picasso, Warhol, and countless others.
The Bosc pear is the queen for me. Their shape is equated to a woman’s body and the flesh to perfume. Add a Bosc pear to any dessert and it is instantly elevated, even when the recipe is super simple to make and baked in a mug, as Justine’s is.
I was swept away by the beauty of the fruit, so I added a fanned pear on top of the mug. It only took me an extra minute to prepare, as you can see in the video. These mug cakes are fancy enough to be served at a dinner party but simple enough to eat while sitting on the couch watching a new season of The Diplomat. Both scenarios fit this beautiful mug cake, I should know, I’ve done each.
The other recommendation I have for the recipe is to double the amount of toffee sauce. It’s delicious and you’ll want to pour an extra hit over the ice cream.
Justine sent me the book, along with this sweet Staub Cast Iron 0.25-qt Mini Round Cocotte*, so I had to make the recipe in it! The other blue mugs I used were ones I made in pottery class but any oven-safe mug will do nicely.
*affiliate link