Family Treat

Pear Cocoa Hazelnut Traybake
Fudgy cocoa squares with soft pear pockets

“Blotted pear pockets soften inside cocoa batter while toasted hazelnuts keep the squares from tasting flat.”

Published by MommyCooking.org · Published September 30, 2026

Cocoa, oil, and yogurt make a fudgy square with no creaming, no melting, and no waiting for butter to soften. Pears are an underused baking fruit, going soft and almost custardy against chocolate rather than collapsing into liquid the way berries do. One bowl of dry, one of wet, and a lined pan.

Pears hold more water than they look like they do, so blot the cubes until the cut faces stop glistening. The bigger risk is the oven, because cocoa batters travel from fudgy to dry across about four minutes and the dark color hides every visual cue. Go by the thermometer and by moist crumbs on a skewer.

🍐 The promise: An hour and a half yields sixteen squares of a cocoa cake that stays fudgy for days, because the yogurt and the pear keep it damp.

Prep 15 minCook 45 minRest/chill 25 minTotal 1 hr 25 minEasyServes 16
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Pear Cocoa Hazelnut Traybake

How to make it

All ingredients for Pear Cocoa Hazelnut Traybake, labeled
🍐 Everything you need, all in one look
🧂 Ingredient notes & easy swaps
Pears should be ripe but still firm, since a soft one turns to mush and leaves a hollow behind. Bosc and Anjou hold their shape best. Toasting the hazelnuts earns its five minutes, because untoasted ones taste papery. Almonds or walnuts substitute directly. Full-fat yogurt gives the fudgiest crumb and low-fat makes it drier.

Cocoa hides every visual cue a cake usually gives, so the skewer and the thermometer take the place of judging the color of the surface.

The fruit pockets sink slightly and darken as the tray cools, which is what makes them visible in the cut face of each square.

🍳 What you actually need (equipment)
A dry skillet for the hazelnuts, a 9-inch square light-colored pan with parchment, a bowl for the cocoa mix and a second for the eggs and yogurt, a whisk, a spatula, a skewer, and an instant-read thermometer.

  1. Line a 9-inch square pan with parchment and heat the oven to 350°F (175°C), with a rack in the middle position. A light-colored pan keeps the cocoa edges from scorching.

    Line the tin and heat oven for Pear Cocoa Hazelnut Traybake
    Line the tin and heat oven

  2. Peel and dice the pears into ½-inch cubes and blot them on paper towel until the surfaces stop glistening. Toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan until fragrant, then rub off the skins and chop them.

    Dice pears, toast hazelnuts for Pear Cocoa Hazelnut Traybake
    Dice pears, toast hazelnuts

  3. Whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt together until the color is a uniform brown with no pale pockets, then stir in the chopped hazelnuts so they are suspended in the dry mixture.

    Whisk the cocoa dry mix for Pear Cocoa Hazelnut Traybake
    Whisk the cocoa dry mix

  4. Beat the eggs, yogurt, sugar, and oil until glossy and slightly thickened, then fold the dry mixture in followed by the pears. Stop as soon as the batter is uniform; it will be thick and slow to level.

    Combine wet and fold in pears for Pear Cocoa Hazelnut Traybake
    Combine wet and fold in pears

  5. Spread the batter into the pan and bake 32–38 minutes, until the surface loses its shine, a skewer comes out with moist crumbs, and the center reads 200°F (93°C). The pear pockets will look darker and slightly sunken.

    Bake until the center sets for Pear Cocoa Hazelnut Traybake
    Bake until the center sets

  6. Let the traybake cool 25 minutes in the pan so the fudgy crumb firms up, then lift it out and cut sixteen squares. Warm cocoa cake tears rather than slices.

    Cool before cutting squares for Pear Cocoa Hazelnut Traybake
    Cool before cutting squares

✅ How to know it's done

The crumb is fudgy but set, the edges have pulled from the parchment, and soft pear pockets dot every square. Fruit that was not blotted leaves wet holes rather than soft pockets; pat the cubes until they stop glistening before they go near the batter.

💡 Practical tips (and what not to do)

🔁 Easy variations (budget · lighter · kids · extra flavor)
Budget: Sunflower seeds or chopped peanuts replace the hazelnuts at a fraction of the cost, toasted exactly the same way. Lighter: Cut the sugar to half a cup and add two extra tablespoons of yogurt to keep it moist. Kids: Chop the nuts very fine or leave them out, since texture draws more objections than flavor does. Extra flavor: Add a quarter teaspoon of instant espresso to the dry mixture, which sharpens the cocoa without tasting of coffee.

💛✨ Flavor boost

Toast the hazelnuts before chopping and fold the darkest pieces through the cocoa batter.

🥔 What Goes Well With It

  • Crème fraîche or thick yogurt, cutting the richness of a fudgy square.
  • A small glass of cold milk, the usual partner to anything this chocolatey.
  • Poached pears alongside, if you want to push the fruit further.

📦 Storage & Freezer Notes

  • Keep it covered at room temperature for three days, over which the crumb actually improves and goes fudgier.
  • Warm a square for ten seconds in the microwave, which softens the fruit pockets and revives the cocoa.
  • Freeze squares individually wrapped for up to three months and thaw at room temperature for half an hour.
  • Toast and skin the hazelnuts while the oven climbs to 350°F (175°C), then let them cool before chopping so they break instead of smearing.
  • Twenty-five minutes in the pan is the minimum, since a warm cocoa crumb tears along the fruit pockets rather than slicing past them.

🧒 Serving Ideas for Kids

  • Cut smaller squares, since a fudgy cocoa crumb is richer than it looks and a full one is a lot.
  • The soft fruit pockets are sweet and mild, which gives a child who dislikes nuts something to aim for.
  • It packs well once fully cool and needs no fork, which suits a lunchbox.

❓ Quick answers

Can I use canned pears?
Yes, drained very well and blotted dry. They are much softer than fresh and will almost disappear into the crumb, so cut them a little larger than half an inch to keep some definition.
Why is my cocoa traybake dry and crumbly?
Overbaking, almost certainly. Cocoa hides the visual cues, so the surface looks the same at thirty-two minutes as at forty. Pull it when a skewer shows moist crumbs and the middle reads 200°F (93°C).
Can I skip toasting the hazelnuts?
You can, but they taste papery and slightly bitter and the skins stay on. Five minutes in a dry pan is what turns them from filler into the thing people notice in each square.
Can I use a different pan size?
A nine-inch round works on the same timing. A larger rectangular pan spreads the batter thinner and bakes faster, so start checking at twenty-five minutes and go by internal temperature.

🥗 Nutrition, roughly: about 180 calories per serving. Estimates only; brands, cuts and portion sizes change the numbers.

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Published by MommyCooking.org. This AI-assisted recipe passed automated checks for page consistency and required image files. A real-kitchen test has not been documented for this dish. The food images are AI-generated illustrations, not photographs of a cooking session. Cooking temperatures should be checked with a food thermometer; nutrition figures are estimates. How we make recipes · Report a problem with this recipe