Pear Coffee Cake – Slightly spiced coffee cake is sprinkled with fresh pears and topped with a cinnamon oatmeal streusel
Pears just don’t get enough respect. Apples are the shining fruit of the fall season, but many don’t know that pears become perfectly ripe this time of year, too. I love pears but I am also guilty of not using them enough in my baking.
This year, I was determined to use them more. So I added them to this lightly spiced coffee cake. And man, do they taste incredible alongside the nutmeg, cinnamon, and oat streusel. Just delightful. I couldn’t get enough of the cake!
Here is my Pear Coffee Cake!
Making the cake
Coffee cake is a ultra-moist, denser cake than a layer cake. It gets that texture from the use of sour cream instead of milk. Nutmeg is also added to the batter to give it a hint of homemade flavor, similar to an old-fashioned doughnut. Other than those two ingredients, all the others are traditional to any cake: flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla extract.
Once the batter is ready, half is spread into a greased square pan. The diced pears are tossed with apple pie spice and sugar and half of them are sprinkled over the batter. The rest of the batter is added on top, followed by the last of the diced pears. This layering technique ensures you have pears in every bite.
Making the streusel topping
Another key characteristic of a coffee cake is a crumb, nut, or streusel topping. For this cake, I am using an oat streusel topping. It’s made with brown sugar, butter, oats, flour, and cinnamon. It’s gets sprinkled over the top of the cake in the square baking pan before baking.
The cake is baked for about 50 minutes and then removed from the oven to cool before slicing into.
Tips & Tricks
- Dark pans. Make sure to reduce your oven temperature if you have dark metal pans. Otherwise, your edges will brown before the center is cooked.
- Do not overmix the batter! When you mix past the point where the ingredients have combined, you are overworking the batter, which will make the cake less fluffy and almost tough.
- Fresh or canned pears. Fresh pears are best for this cake because they will keep their shape better. However, you can use canned pears, if needed. Just make sure you drain and rinse the pears before using.
Pear Coffee Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ cup butter unsalted, softened
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2½ cup peeled, diced pears
- ½ teaspoon apple pie spice (or ground cinnamon)
For the oatmeal streusel topping:
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅓ cup flour
- ¼ cup old-fashioned oats
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 if you have a dark-coated pan). Prep your 9×9 square pan by lining it with parchment paper with a little hanging over for easy cake removal.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, ground nutmeg, and salt in small bowl to combine. Set aside.
- Whip butter and sugar together with a stand mixer or a hand mixer until it becomes light and fluffy. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment. Add eggs , one at a time, and vanilla. Mix on low until fully incorporated.
- Add 1/3 of flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until just combined. Add 1/2 of the sour cream to the butter mixture and mix until just combined. Repeat again until flour and milk mixtures are fully incorporated into the butter mixture.
- Take a spatula, scrap down the sides of the bowl of the cake batter to make sure you have all the ingredients mixed in. Pour half of the batter into prepared dish and spread into an even layer. Mix the diced pears with apple pie spice (or cinnamon) and remaining ⅓ cup of sugar. Top batter with half of sweetened pears. Spread second half of batter over the top and then sprinkle remaining pears on top. Make topping (see below) and sprinkle over the batter.
- Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. If you want a crispier top layer, cook for 55 minutes. Once finished baking, place on rack to cool for 10 minutes while still in cake pan. Then remove from cake pan to finish cooling on the rack. Can be served warm or cooled. Store leftover cake in storage container for up to 3 days.
For the oatmeal streusel topping:
- Mix melted butter, salt and sugar in a small bowl together until smooth. Add flour, cinnamon, and oats and combine together.
Notes
Pin for later:
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I made this for a brunch gathering last weekend and it was a total hit! The pear and coffee combination is so unexpected but works beautifully. I used a mix of Bosc and Anjou pears and the cake came out incredibly moist. Will definitely be adding this to my rotation for special occasions.
This pear coffee cake looks absolutely divine! I love the combination of fresh pears with the oat streusel topping. The tip about not overmixing the batter is so important – I learned that the hard way with my first few cakes. Will definitely be making this for our next brunch gathering!
I couldn’t get enough of the cake!
This coffee cake turned out absolutely delicious! Pears are so underrated in baking, so I was excited to give this a try. I even froze a few squares for quick and easy breakfasts! MyCenturaHealth
It is a nice recipe. Thanks alot. Best regards! http://www.fooddoz.com
This pear coffee cake sounds so good!
I love the combination of coffee and pear! These are good for my morning or afternoon teas.
I love coffee and I love pears so I definitely need to try this
love love love the pear coffee cake and that streusel topping is cherry on the top. Making it this sunday.
This coffee cake was so delicious. The pears were soft and the cake was amazing with my coffee.
Oo what a fabulous flavor. I just love pears!
This looks delicious! I am a big fan of pears and love cooking with them – this looks like a great choice for my next project with them!
This coffee cake turned out so delicious! I feel like pears get overlooked in baking so I was excited to try this. I froze a few squares for easy breakfasts!
What a delicious flavor combination! I love the oatmeal crumble on top!