This morning I finally made the Fresh Pear Coffee Cake recipe I'd been eyeing for a few weeks.
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This recipe was actually in a cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens Annual Recipes 1997 (affiliate link)) that my great-grandmother got me for Christmas while I was a teenager. This recipe has just been sitting in this cookbook, with several other coffee cake recipes, waiting for me to make it. I was able to make this since I had some leftover plain Greek yogurt in my fridge, and pears that my friend Jen brought me that really needed to be cooked with.

This was a very pretty coffee cake; the pictures don't do it justice. The streusel on this browned very nicely. I enjoyed having the crisp sugary top. The cake itself was soft and billowy. The yogurt made the cake moist. Unfortunately, I didn't have the pears distributed well, so not every bite had pears in it. I wonder if I should have strewn the pears on the batter and pressed them into the cake, rather than mixing them in, to get them more even.
This was a good coffee cake with pears in it, and both Alex and I enjoyed it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this coffee cake, but I think that I was somehow expecting something even more delicious. In the future, I'd like to try something to maximize the pearyness of this recipe; maybe I'd try slicing the pears and arranging them evenly under a layer of batter. Overall, this is a solid recipe worth trying; perhaps I'll even make it better some day.
Want more coffee cake? Try Sour Cream Coffee Cake, Quick Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake, or Strawberry Coffee Cake.
📖 Recipe
A delicious coffee cake made with fresh pears. Be sure to distribute the pears evenly through the batter to be sure to have fruit in every bite.
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons flour
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
- 1 ¾ cup flour (I used ⅔ cup white whole wheat flour, and all-purpose flour for the rest)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¼ cup margarine
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 8 ounces sour cream (or ½ cup Greek yogurt mixed with ½ cup milk)
- 1 ½ cups peeled and chopped pears
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Combine ⅓ cup sugar, brown sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, and ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Cut in 2 tablespoons butter or margarine with a pastry cutter (affiliate link). Set streusel aside.
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Combine remaining dry ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, sugar, margarine, and vanilla; mix with hand mixer (affiliate link) for 2 minutes, until well blended. Add flour mixture and sour cream alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in pears with spatula, breaking up fruit so it doesn't clump. Pour into a greased 11x7 inch pan. Evenly spread streusel over the batter.
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Bake in 350F oven for about 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. (This took me 35 in my hot oven.) Serve warm.
Adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens Best of 1997 Cookbook
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