Sunday, November 27, 2011

Yogurt Cake with Asian Pears and Cinnamon Swirl

This is a quick and delicious coffee cake that's easy to mix up and even easier to eat!  Although the original recipe called for apples, I went with Asian pears since that was what I had on hand - they cooked up similarly to apples but definitely added a unique and tasty flavor to the cake.  Since I was using Asian pears, I subbed in cardamom for some of the cinnamon - it's one of my favorite spices, and I think it combines beautifully with pears.  There's no better way to start the morning than with a coffee cake full of pears and warm spices!


Yogurt Cake with Asian Pears and Cinnamon Swirl (adapted from the kitchn, original recipe here)
Makes one 8-inch square cake

3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt (I used 2 percent)
1/3 cup olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
2 Asian pears, peeled and coarsely chopped
1-1/4 cup all purpose flour
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
Scant 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
Generous grate of fresh nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1-1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 T unsalted butter, very soft

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
2. Whisk together the yogurt, oil, lemon juice, sugar, egg, yolk, and vanilla.  Add the chopped pears and stir to combine..
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cardamom.  Stir into the wet ingredients until just combined.
4. Stir together the cinnamon, brown sugar, and butter until well combined in a small bowl.
5. Scrape about half the batter into the prepared baking pan.  Using your fingers, sprinkle about half the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the batter.  Top with remaining batter and remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture.
6. Bake about 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.  Cool 15 minutes before cutting.

5 comments:

  1. Yum! I like the use of yogurt and nutmeg (one of my favourite spices) :)

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  2. I love yogurt cake. Definitely trying your recipe.

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  3. The use of yogurt must have kept this really moist...

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  4. You know I don't think I've ever tried baking with pears before - love it!

    Glad you liked the pumpkin ravioli - yep, I too liked that it wasn't overly sweet! :D

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  5. It is a shame that more recipes don't call for cardomom. It is good. I have sneaked it into recipes. I would like to make this with apples since I have no idea what an Asian pear is.

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