Vanilla Pear Coffee Cake

 Even though you can't see them, there are delicious little nuggets of pear in this coffee cake.

I woke up this morning and there was snow on the ground. In September! I'm also fighting a cold so I felt the need for wintery, comfort food.

I also have the "I must bake today" feeling. First I wanted to make some brownies. Believe it or not, I've yet to make a vegan brownie recipe. But I was more in the mood for some homemade cinnamon rolls. While looking for the perfect cinnamon roll recipe, I came upon this recipe. Since I had two beautiful ripe pears, I decided to make the coffee cake.

This recipe is adapted from the cookbook Blissful Bites by Christy Morgan. I like her recipes because she uses whole grains and unrefined sugars. It's a bright colorful cookbook just like the recipes.The recipe is a "three-bowler" but worth it. It uses flours that may not be in your pantry: barley and brown rice flour. It's a nice change from whole wheat flour. The fat used is coconut oil which I greatly prefer instead of Earth Balance margarine.Whenever I make baked goods with Earth Balance margarine I don't care for the flavor. I find coconut oil more neutral and I did not detect any coconut flavor in this coffee cake. If you are concerned about a coconut flavor, be sure to buy the refined coconut oil.

All in all I enjoyed this coffee cake. It really didn't take all that long to prepare and it was soooo much better than anything you could buy in the grocery store!

Topping Ingredients
3/4 cup barley flour
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
2 TB coconut oil, melted
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon
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1 cup chopped pear

Cake Ingredients
1 cup barley flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 TB flax meal
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
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3 TB coconut oil, melted
3/4 cup coconut palm sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 TB applesauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
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1/2 cup soy milk or any other non-dairy milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Directions
Topping: Mix all the ingredients together except for the pear. Mix well and then add the pear and set aside.

Cake Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly oil 8x8 pan. Add the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl, mix, and set aside. Whisk together coconut oil and sugar. Add the applesauce, vanilla and milk. Mix again. Add wet to dry and mix until combined. Spread in pan. Add the topping mix and press into batter. Bake for 50-60 minutes until toothpick comes clean.

One year ago...
Cinnamon Buns with Maple Vanilla Icing. These were very tasty and even made with Earth Balance margarine which I won't do again. The next time I make this recipe I will use some coconut oil instead of the Earth Balance margarine!