Greek Yogurt Pear Coffee Cake.

(This pear coffee cake is sponsored by Harry & David!)

You put on the coffee and I’ll bring the pear coffee cake! 

If you have holiday brunch on the brain, this is for you. 

Or holiday breakfast. Holiday dessert! This coffee cake can work for all of those. And since it’s coffee cake, it’s not like REAL CAKE, you know?

So it’s easily justified for breakfast. 

Today I’m partnering with Harry & David to bring you this breakfast! 

For the last few years, I’ve been lucky enough to work with Harry & David during the holiday season, creating a recipe or two with their incredible Royal Riviera pears. Because of that, I’ll spare you the entire story of how Harry & David pears were a staple of my childhood during the season. My dad would always get sent a box or two and they were just delightful!

And by that, I mean my brothers and I would fight over them until they were gone.

THEY ARE THAT GOOD!! 

And I often forget about just how delicious pears are in baked goods. In fact, you can pretty much interchange them with apples here, which is what I did! Instead of making a big apple coffee crumb cake, I used the Royal Riviera Pears from Harry & David. 

They instantly make me feel like it’s Christmastime. I can practically smell Christmas in my house when I was growing up. 

I highly suggest gifting someone a box of their pears this season if you get a chance. And if you get one for yourself, you can make this cake, my holiday greens salad I shared a few days ago and this pear sangria too. 

Things are looking up. 

Coffee cake is already incredible, but in this pear coffee cake, we brown the butter first. Oooooh yes. Brown the butter to get all that golden, caramely flavor into the cake. It doesn’t do anything wild to the cake, but the depth of flavor is heightened. It adds a slight toasted, caramel hint that makes you go… “what is that?!”

I’m here to tell you it’s the brown butter. We should always be browning our butter! 

The other thing I love about this coffee cake? Greek yogurt! There is an entire cup of plain greek yogurt (I love to use 5% or 2%) in the cake and it adds a lovely moistness that can’t be matched. However, you can sub sour cream if you in a pinch. 

Perhaps the best part? This coffee cake can be made ahead of time! Bake it the night before so it’s ready to go in the morning. It would be a wonderful Christmas Eve or Christmas morning breakfast because who doesn’t love coffee cake?

And it makes for a pretty darn good dessert too.

Pear Coffee Cake

Greek Yogurt Pear Coffee Cake

Yield: 8 people

Prep Time: 45 minutes mins

Cook Time: 45 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

A pear coffee cake made with brown butter and greek yogurt. It's delicious for breakfast or brunch and the crumb topping is unbelievable.

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5 from 34 votes

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Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup plain greek yogurt cream
• 2 cups peeled and chopped Royal Riviera Pears

crumb topping

• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Instructions 

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Add the 8 tablespoons of butter to a large skillet or pot and heat it over medium-low heat. Let the butter begin to bubble and whisk occasionally, until brown bits begin to appear on the bottom. Whisk until the butter is slightly golden, then remove it from the heat. Pour the butter in a bowl to let it cool to room temperature.
• Place the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter in a 9x13 inch baking dish and stick the baking dish in the oven for 2 to 3 minutes, so the butter will melt while you make the cake. This is how we grease out pan. You can brush the butter all around the dish once it is melted.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
• In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat together the cooled brown butter and the sugar until combined. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating until combined. Beat in the vanilla extract.
• Add a third of the dry ingredients, then add half of the yogurt. Add another third of the dry ingredients and the remaining yogurt. Finish the with the remaining dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Stir the pears into the batter with a spatula.
• Pour the batter into the buttered dish.
• Top with the crumb mixture.
• Bake the coffee cake for 4o to 45 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the coffee cake cool completely before serving!

crumb topping

• Whisk together the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl. Add the butter and using a fork or your fingers, mix and mash until the butter is combined and the crumb topping is in coarse crumbs, with some bits looking like sand. Sprinkle it over the batter when ready!

Notes

[slightly adapted from food network]

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Author: How Sweet Eats

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I appreciate you so much!

Those juicy pears are calling my name! Because cake.