Pear Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

I haven’t been able to get my act together to bake together with Abby Dodge for a few months now. I was pretty vocal about my approval of coffee cake for this month’s recipe, though, so I felt that I better make the effort this time. It’s only fair. Besides: coffee cake is always awesome. There’s just no excuse!

I had some bosc pears sitting in the fridge that I intended for another project, but I couldn’t resist grabbing them for this cake. Pears are one of my favorite parts of Fall. And apples. And pumpkins. But the pears, too. They bring me back to my childhood, when our neighbor had two huge pear trees in his front yard. We would climb up and snag pears from those monstrosities, eating them while perched upon the stone wall. Ah…youth. Luckily, our neighbor didn’t mind our sticky fingers.

Cakes with hidden layers are like a gift inside a gift, and this one doesn’t disappoint! The streusel that makes up the topping also comprises one of the layers of the cake. It’s a little bit of a pain to spread the final layer of batter over it, but it’s worth the suffering. Suck it up! It’s over quickly. And when you’re eating that cake afterward, you’ll be thankful you did it.

Abby says this cake is best a day or two after baking, but nothing homemade ever lasts that long in my house. You’ll just have to take her word on that. I found it to be pretty awesome on the same day when I served it for dinner. Don’t judge. It had fruit in it, at least.

The original recipe resides here on Abby Dodge’s blog. In the comments, you’ll see links to what other participants made. Abby will also have a roundup post soon, too, of all the #BakeTogether interpretations. (Or check out that hashtag on Twitter for the most up-to-date information.)