PEAR-HAZELNUT COFFEE CAKE
At Good Housekeeping, we welcomed visitors who came on tours of the test kitchen by serving the magazine’s time-honored coffee cake. We studded the buttery crumb-topped sour cream cake with all kinds of seasonal fruit, but my favorite was pear. This recipe is a tribute to that cake, though I’ve lightened it a bit by replacing the butter with a blend of pomegranate juice and olive oil for a moist crumb around the lush chunks of pears. Rye flour, raw sugar, and warm spices bring unexpected depth without weighing down the cake, while hazelnuts, all by themselves, taste rich enough to forgo a separate crumb topping.
makes one 9-inch cake
dairy-free
- ¾ cup (107 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (74 g) rye flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (100 g) plus 2 tablespoons raw sugar, such as turbinado
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- ½ cup (111 g) unsweetened pomegranate juice
- ¼ cup (55 g) extra-virgin olive oil
- 10 ounces (283 g) ripe D’Anjou pear (about 1 large), cored and cut into ½-inch dice
- ½ cup (73 g) hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and coarsely chopped
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Coat a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom with parchment paper and spray again.
2. Whisk both flours, the baking powder, baking soda, salt, ½ cup (100 g) raw sugar, ½ teaspoon of the cinnamon, and ¼ teaspoon of the cardamom in a large bowl. Combine the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, and ¼ teaspoon cardamom in a small bowl; reserve.
3. Whisk the egg, juice, and oil in a medium bowl until smooth and emulsified. Add to the flour mixture and fold in until smooth. Spread half of the batter evenly in the pan. Scatter the pear evenly over the batter in a single layer. Dollop the remaining batter on top and gently smooth it to cover the pears as best you can. It’s OK if there are a few gaps. Sprinkle the hazelnuts and then the reserved spiced sugar evenly on top.
4. Bake until the cake is firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.
5. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then run a thin-bladed knife between the edges of the cake and the pan and release and remove the sides. Cool completely on the pan base on the rack.
MAKE AHEAD
The cake is good the day it is made, and it is even better the next morning. It will keep for up to 2 days at room temperature.