Pear Crumble Coffee Cake

Have you ever put a pear in your purse? It always starts with the best of intentions. Mid-morning snack. Afternoon fruit break. Nope… it’s never going to be any of those. It’s going to get bruised by your wallet and smashed up against some loose pens. It never goes as well as you’d like it to.

Bad idea. Better idea? Pear in coffee cake. This coffee cake is tender, spiced with Fall, and pear-studded. So much better than bruised and pen-stabbed, right!?

Let’s melt our butter and get this show on the road. The flavors of brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg shine! Buttermilk is our great tenderizer, whisked together with melted butter, eggs, and vanilla extract. Pretty simple!

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flours
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 small or 1 1/2 medium pears, ripe but still firm, unpeeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch chunks

For the Crumble Topping:

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons granulated or brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/4-inch cubes