Coffee Cake with Pear and Walnuts…….perfect for getaways.

Pear Coffee Cake

Wanted to make something special for the Whale watching trip that would be easy, yummy and would travel well. Not to mention I had just made this Sour cream coffee cake recently with apples and walnuts, but I got this one step closer to perfection. This is a simple cake, although it is really dense and its tricky thicky trying to spread this mixture. It comes out great, but when making this it seems like there isn’t enough dough to cover your filling. This time also I put in the flour with the filling, which is why the last one was extremely moist on top. This time however, it was moist and crumbly! And it will feed a group happily if you are on a traveling adventure. Even plenty to share with strangers.

Here’s all you do:

Ingredients:
Filling:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 1/4 cups walnuts, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 pear finely chopped

Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pears

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream or vanilla yogurt (added an additional 1/3 cup to help spread)

Cooking Directions:

Preheat oven to 350˚, spray a Bundt pan with cooking spray until well coated and sprinkle with flour to coat it.

Add butter and cinnamon to a medium bowl and mix with a fork until combined and crumbly. Mix in walnuts and maple syrup and flour.

Cake Done

In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.  With an electric mixer (paddle attachment if you have one), beat sugar and butter  until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, add in vanilla. Mix in flour mixture in two batches, alternating with sour cream, just until blended. (Again, the mixture was really thick and my guess is I needed more butter….still the cure for everything! ;-)

Spoon half of batter into prepared pan. Spoon maple filling over batter. Spread remaining batter over filling and smooth top.  Bake about  30-35 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Transfer pan to rack and cool 15 minutes. Run knife around pan sides to loosen cake. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Share with new friends, old friends and stray dogs! Nothing more beautiful than a smile!

Bon Appétit!