Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Over the weekend, my sister, brother-in-law and their two kids came up to stay.  We wanted to have our cousin Elsie, resident family photographer, photograph the kids so that we could surprise my parents for Christmas (shhh..).  I see my sister fairly often and when we get together, it’s a zoo.  I always imagine that the mornings will be leisurely, where my sister and I lounge around with our coffee cups and chit chat about this and that.  In reality, the kids go nuts and run around in circles until someone barfs or drops from dizziness and we get to clean up the mess.  But it is fun.  And we do get to talk a bit over coffee.

Knowing it would be a little chaotic to whip up a big breakfast the next day, I made a cream cheese coffee cake the night before.  I served it at room temperature the next day and it was good but it would be great warmed up.

Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Makes one 8-inch round cake

Filling

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 egg

1 teaspoon maple syrup

1/8 teaspoon stevia

Cake

6 eggs

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup yogurt

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon stevia

1 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon coconut flour, sifted

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup pecans, chopped

1 tablespoon coconut sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Grease one 8-inch round cake pan.
2. Beat together all ingredients for cream cheese filling.  Set aside.
3. Combine wet ingredients for cake then add the dry ingredients through the salt.  Mix well.
4. Toss pecans, cinnamon and coconut sugar together in a separate bowl.
5. Pour cake batter into pan and drop bits of the pecan mixture throughout batter.
6. Top with cream cheese filling and use a knife or tooth pick to swirl it around.
7. Bake for 25 minutes and let cool slightly before slicing.

Pear and Blackberry Cobbler

I made a cake the other day with the ripening pears on my counter to serve as a quick snack.  It was pretty good but the whole time I was eating it, I thought it needed more pear and less cake.  Pears are plentiful this time of year and whether they are fresh and crunchy or ripe and juicy, they are full of flavor and taste great cooked.  So I decided to change the fruit-to-cake ratio and turn the recipe into one for a cobbler.  Mmm!  The result was lots of chunky, baked fruit with the cinnamony pears and the tart blackberries, and just enough cakey topping to complete the ensemble.  I served this dessert after dinner with my in-laws and parents and no one could tell that it did not contain any wheat.  My dad, who isn’t big on sweets had a second helping.

Pear and Blackberry Cobbler

Makes one 9 x 13 dish

Filling

6 pears (8 – 9 cups)

10 ounce bag of frozen blackberries (1.5 cups)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons honey

1/4 teaspoon stevia

2 tablespoons arrowroot

1/3 cup water

Topping

2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour

1/4 cup coconut sugar

1/4 teaspoon stevia

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter, cold

2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish.
2. Wash, peel and core pears, then cut into 1/2 inch cubes.
3. Combine pears, blackberries and cinnamon in the baking dish.
4. Mix honey, stevia, arrowroot, and water together and pour over the fruit.
5. In food processor, pulse almond flour, coconut sugar, stevia and salt just until combined.
6. Cube the cold butter and add to processor and pulse to a coarse meal.
7. Add the eggs and pulse again just until combined.
8. Spoon the batter over the fruit and smooth slightly.
9. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 to 40 minutes until pears and blackberries are bubbly.
10. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes until the top is golden brown.
11. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

The fruit takes center stage in this dessert so not much sweetening is needed.  Either the coconut sugar or the stevia can be omitted if you have really ripe pears.  Other fruit can be used also, like apples or peaches, or any combination of berries.  There’s just something so homey and comforting, though, about baked pears that I’ll keep making it this way for a while.