Pear Streusel Coffee Cake

Pear Streusel Coffee Cake

When I was a kid there were two memorable instances that I came in contact with pears. First, the bad: those grainy, sandy squares of pear in cans of fruit cocktail. Needless to say I picked those out (along with the tough pineapple chunks.) Second, the good: my Great Aunt Maggie's pear preserves, which I don't know how to make and haven't eaten in more years that I care to admit. (Am I really that old? That I can think in years?) Yes, we occasionally ate fresh pears, but we were more apple and banana people. That's probably because pears go from rock hard to slurpy mess too quickly. But this characterisitic also makes them lovely to bake with, as I've found before. And now I can add this pear coffee cake to my bed-and-breakfast file. (Or my welcome-fall file. Or my must-make-again file.) Because it's good. Really good.

Pear Streusel Coffee Cake

Every time I make a coffee cake I expect it to turn out too dry. I think that's an effect of eating too many store-bought coffee cakes, which probably languish in trucks and on shelves too long before they make their way to our homes. I think that's also why I'm not much of a cake eater; the texture of cake is just too easy to mess up, and life is too short to eat dry cake. But this coffee cake is made with yogurt, and I've never made a yogurt cake that turned out poorly. This cake was just moist enough to hold together on a fork and not at all so dry that you need a cup of hot coffee to choke down a piece. Of course I recommend that you do drink coffee with it - or tea - because as I've said before it's the coffee that makes eating cake for breakfast acceptable. If you need a reason, that is.

Pear Streusel Coffee Cake

Spiced Pear Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar & Oat Streusel by Cookin' Canuck

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