Pear Streusel Coffee Cake

This cake features my homegrown sweet, juicy Bosc pears sandwiched between a tender moist cake and spiced nutty crunchy streusel topping. A slice of it is perfect as a breakfast item or as an afternoon tea snack.
My cake stand on our breakfast table was quite inviting with this cake on it.

Note: With my technique to really activate the baking soda is to mix it with the sour cream ahead of time. That way you get a tender tall cake with almost no baking soda aftertaste.

Avoid using an 8-inch cake pan for it. Only use 9-inch or even 10-inch works. I accidentally picked up my 8-inch cake pan from the pantry instead of the 9-inch one and it did give me a bit of trouble by taking longer to fully cook in the center. But I handled it.


Pear Streusel Coffee Cake

3 cups flour-375g
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

1 cup softened butter
1 ½ cups fine sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

1 cup sour cream
½ tsp baking soda

Streusel Topping:

¾ C flour- 63g
½ C cashews or walnuts
2 ½ tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp cold butter, diced
¼ C brown sugar

5 Bosc or Bartlett pears- sliced

Instructions:

Prepare the streusel topping by crumbing the flour and cold butter together. Add the rest of the ingredients to it and rub it using finger tips into a coarse mixture.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set it aside.

Mix baking soda and sour cream and set that aside.

Cream together softened butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and whisk after each addition. Add vanilla. Sift ⅓ of the flour mixture on it and add ½ of the sour cream to it. Whisk it well.
Repeat the flour and sour cream addition. Add the rest of the dry mix to it and fold in with a spatula.
Parchment line a 9-inch cake pan. Add the cake batter to it and even out the top. Arrange the sliced pears on top overlapping each other. Spread the streusel mixture over the pears and tap the cake pan on the surface.

Bake at 340°F for one hour. After an hour add a piece of foil to cover the top loosely and continue baking for an additional 15-20 minutes. Bake till the cake tester comes out clean.
Let it cool on the wire rack for ten minutes before removing from the pan.

Cranberry Sauce:

1 cup cranberries
¼ cup sugar
1 cup water

Combine the three ingredients and cook them covered on medium-low heat. Cook till the berries fall apart. Pass the sauce through a strainer.

Feast Well!