zenbelly

recipes for real life

  • About
  • Cookbooks
  • Recipes
  • House & Home

Pear-Pecan Coffee Cake

October 14, 2015 by zenbelly 9 Comments

I’m just going to go ahead and say it:

I love cake for breakfast.

Not all the time, I swear. More often than not, I eat leftover dinner for breakfast, or I make myself some eggs, or whip up some kind of hash like one of these egg-free breakfast bowls. You know, like a responsible adult.

Every now and then, though… I want something more pastry-like. Now, I haven’t gone completely off the rails, and I’m not cutting off slices of an Entenmann’s danish loaf or whatever those things are. I’m talking about grain-free coffee cake that is lightly sweetened and pretty high in fat for cake, meaning it probably won’t cause a sugar crash an hour after eating it.

Like this one, for example; a lightly sweetened almond flour-based cake that’s filled with ripe pears and warm spices and topped off with a buttery pecan topping. If you’re a better person than I, and won’t be eating this for breakfast, it’s perfect with afternoon tea.

pear pecan coffee cake

Pear Pecan Coffee Cake

prep time 15 minutes  |  cook time 45 minutes  |  makes one 8″ square coffee cake 

FOR THE TOPPING:
2 cups pecans
1 tablespoon tapioca starch
2 tablespoons ghee
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

FOR THE CAKE:
2 pears, about 3/4 pound, firm-ripe
1/4 cup sustainably sourced palm shortening, melted and cooled slightly, plus more for greasing the pan
4 eggs
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup apple cider (the juice, not the vinegar!)
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon clove
1/4 teaspoon salt

  • Preheat the oven to 350 and grease an 8×8 glass baking dish with palm shortening.
  • TO MAKE THE TOPPING:
  • Pulse the pecans in the bowl of your food processor 5-6 times until roughly chopped. Add the tapioca starch, ghee, maple syrup, cinnamon, and salt. Pulse another 8-10 times, or until the mixture is well incorporated and the pecans are minced. Set aside.
  • TO MAKE THE CAKE:
  • Cut the pears into small dice.
  • In the jar of your blender (I love my Blendtec), place the shortening, eggs, maple syrup and apple cider. Blend on medium for 15-20 seconds, or until well blended.
  • Add the almond flour, tapioca starch, coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt and blend again for 15 seconds, or until well combined, scraping down the sides half way through, if necessary.
  • Stir in the pears and pour into the prepared pan. Distribute the topping on top, pressing it lightly into the batter.
  • Bake for 42-45 minutes, or until the top bounces back when lightly pressed.
  • Allow to cool before slicing and serving. If not eaten within a day or two, refrigerate the cake; grain-free baked goods tend to mold quickly.

 


All of the links on zenbelly.com are for information purposes, however some are affiliate links to books, products or services. Any sponsored posts are clearly labelled as being sponsored content. Some ads on this site are served by ad networks and the advertised products are not necessarily recommended by Zenbelly.

Filed Under: Breakfast, Dessert Tagged With: gluten free coffee cake, glutenfree breakfast, paleo breakfast, paleo coffee cake, paleo pear cake, paleo snacks, zenbelly coffee cake

« Gluten-Free + Paleo Eats in the SF Bay Area
Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies »

you might also like:

Comments

  1. Jean Marie says

    October 15, 2015 at 12:34 pm

    Is it possible to substitute the palm shortening? If so, what do you suggest as a comparable ingredient?

    Reply
    • Zenbelly says

      October 15, 2015 at 2:00 pm

      You could try coconut oil or ghee or butter.

      Reply
  2. Marcella says

    January 11, 2017 at 12:56 pm

    Hello…Is is possible to prepare this just up until it is time to put in the oven, but instead, refrigerate overnight to bake fresh in the am? Would that cause problems? Thanks for your help. I love your Zenbelly cookbook!

    Reply
    • zenbellyblog says

      January 11, 2017 at 3:47 pm

      Thanks, Marcella! I’m not sure how that would work, it may dry out a bit since the flours tend to keep absorbing the liquid. I want to say it will be fine but can’t be 100%. Safest thing would be to keep the dry and liquid ingredients separate until you’re ready to bake. Please let me know how it goes if you do try it!

      Reply
      • Alene says

        February 6, 2022 at 2:50 pm

        Hi. I diced my pears and mixed them in thoroughly but they all ended up on top and not throughout the cake. Should I have dusted them with flour to keep them suspended? And I seem to have developed a terrible sweet tooth, and the cake wasn’t sweet enough for me. I am not paleo but just gluten and rice intolerant. Just. Haha. I really liked the way it came out, the cake part. So I might try it again, if I can find answers to both those things. Thank you for your wonderful recipes. You solve a lot of my problems, and I am grateful.

      • zenbelly says

        February 7, 2022 at 1:10 pm

        You could try coating them in flour, that tends to help them stay distributed throughout the cake. Can’t really help with the not sweet enough part, I don’t like my sweets typical bakery-sweet so create them to be more balanced.

  3. Terri HarpLady says

    October 11, 2018 at 10:02 am

    Now that the temps are dropping, I find myself reminiscing about those days when I baked a lot, and I really wanted to make a coffeecake. I knew just where to go, because I’ve enjoyed this recipe before, more than once actually.

    One time I added some crystallized ginger, and that was a lovely variation from the original recipe..

    This time I used walnuts, instead of pecans. My daughter Ari, her baby Vella, and my friend Lisa were coming for brunch, so I divided the batter and topping into muffins, and they were perfect, along with some roasted cauliflower, homemade sausage, eggs, and a pot of strong black tea.

    Thank you, as always, Simone, for your wonderful recipes. I can’t eat things like this everyday, but on the special occasions when I do, I always know I can count on you for something sweet and decadent, and within the sphere of the foods I can eat. Your savory recipes are also wonderful

    p.s. I’ve been digging up sweet potatoes in my garden, and right away my boyfriend mentioned your sweet potato pecan pie. 🙂

    Reply
    • zenbelly says

      October 11, 2018 at 10:53 am

      That’s so lovely to hear, Terri, thank you! <3

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. What To Cook Next Week - zenbelly says:
    October 3, 2018 at 9:00 pm

    […] just cut to the chase, this PEAR PECAN COFFEE CAKE is how I justify eating cake for […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About Me (Hi! I’m Simone)

Hello, and Welcome! I'm so glad you're here. Why? Because my most favorite thing is to help home cooks feel like pros in their kitchens. A little about me... I've been cooking professionally for a long time - around 25 years - and ...

Read More »

Archives

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress