I'm not sure if it would be possible for me to find a way to have changed this recipe any further from it's original than say, ummm, just using a completely different recipe.
It was originally a Pumpkin Coffee Cake.
It was not supposed to have a 3 egg cake as it's bottom layer.
It shouldn't have had as much butter as I added.
I could go on but  instead I think that we need to take a moment here and consider inspiration and the roll that even the most mundane and everyday can have on inspirations' stage.  My inspiration for this Coffee Cake... a jar of pears.


If you've been following this blog for any length of time you may have picked up that I'm on a year long experiment so to speak.  I started canning seriously last summer and am now sitting back and watching how things get used up.  Did I make too much of this, too little of that.  That kind of thing.  Well, I've never done this before so I guess I should have maybe thought things through a little more and started smaller with a couple of things (I didn't think that 25 jars of jams would be too much).  I am now starring down 12 very large jars of canned pears.  Beautifully canned in a vanilla, cinnamon syrup.  Ready to be eaten with ice cream, plain yogurt (sounds great) or a simple pound cake.  I haven't done any of those things with the pears.  What I've done thus far is give 3 jars to my parents.  That felt good.
This situation needs some serious tackling and my first order of business was to come up with a way to get through a decent amount of pears (try about a half a jar here) in the most kid-appealing way possible (not so sure that this was a success in that department).
I must thank the author of this book because while I was meandering through it before falling asleep I kinda just latched onto this pumpkin coffee cake thing and my brain ran.  And ran.  And ran.  I like where it ran to with the pear thing.  I like that it has a topping and that after a day or so it got even better  'cause the topping got kinda soft and squidgy with the pears.  I definitely screwed up on the egg thing and put 3 eggs in the bottom layer where there should only have been 1... Oops.  It worked fortunately.
If you make this cake please don't pass final judgement until the day after it's been baked (or maybe the evening if you baked it in the morning) because I found it much improved with 12 hours under it's belt.


So look here, don't shrug off those mundane moments as completely lost time.  Those hours spent in line.  The waiting at the Dr's office.  The time spent waiting for your phone company to have an 'available representative'.  Those times when you get so desperate for a snack that you eat 3 tablespoons of peanut butter in a row (and not the healthy kind of peanut butter).  Those could be just the moments that will somehow produce that epiphany.


Pear Coffee Cake adapted from Winter Harvest Cookbook

3 cups sliced pears (canned or fresh)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and diced
1/3 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cardamom
3 tbsp brown sugar

Grease a 9x13 inch cake pan.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine the milk and eggs together in a bowl and set aside.
Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together in a bowl.   Cut in the butter until the mixture forms a crumbly texture (mine never really truly got there but close enough).  Divide the flour mixture in half(ish).  Add the eggs/milk mixture to one of the flour bowls.  Stir until mixed and pour into the greased baking pan.  Bake for about 10 minutes or until just barely firm in the middle.
Place the sliced pears on top of the warm cake.
In the remaining flour bowl add the cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and brown sugar.  Mix.  Pour the mixture on top of the pears.  Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until the topping looks somewhat melted to the pears and the edges of the cake are golden brown.
Cool for about 10 minutes before cutting.