Walnut Pear Coffee Cake — The Slice That Holds Together

Mamma called Tuesday morning at 10 AM, as she always does, as she has done since she had a phone of her own in 1953. She wanted to know what I was making for dinner. The question matters to her in a way that I now understand at sixty-eight in a way I did not understand at thirty. The asking is the love. The answering is the love. The conversation is the bridge across the days. We talked for nineteen minutes. Mamma is ninety. The phone calls are precious and finite. I do not waste them. Anna sent photos from Minneapolis — the kids in their school uniforms, David's new bookshelf, the dog (their dog, not mine; their dog is named Cooper, and Cooper is a Bernese mountain dog who weighs more than Anna and who is, by all accounts, the most relaxed dog in the upper Midwest). I printed three of the photos and put them on the fridge. The fridge holds the family that is not currently in the kitchen. Elsa called from Voyageurs. She had a sighting of a wolf — a single gray adult crossing a frozen bay at dawn, fifty yards from her cabin. She had a sighting of a moose two days later. She is happy in the woods. I am glad someone in this family is happy in the woods. I have always loved Lake Superior, but the deeper woods are not for me. Elsa is for the deeper woods. The match is right. I cooked Cheesecake with strawberries this week. New York-style cheesecake, baked in a water bath, topped with macerated strawberries. The crust is graham cracker and butter. The slice holds together. The Damiano Center on Thursday. I have served soup at this center for twenty-some years. I know the regulars by name. I know the seasons of the crowd. I know that the first cold snap brings new faces. I know that the days after holidays bring the lonely ones. I know that the worst weeks of the year are not the ones that feel the worst — they are the ones in February when the cold has worn everyone down and the city has run out of tenderness. Paul would have liked this dinner. Paul would have liked this week. Paul would have liked this life. I tell him about it anyway. The telling is the keeping. I have been told, by a grief counselor, by friends, by my own children at certain anxious moments, that perhaps the constant tell-Paul thing is not healthy. I do not agree. I think it is exactly healthy. I think it is, in fact, the structural beam of my emotional architecture. The beam is solid. The house stands. It is enough. It has to be. And on a morning like this, with the lake doing what the lake does and the dog at my feet and the bread on the counter and the kitchen warm enough to live in, it is. The lake from the kitchen window has been doing what the lake does for as long as there has been a lake. The lake has carried fish and ships and the bodies of drowned sailors and the names of Ojibwe villages and the granite-cold of melted glaciers. The lake does not notice the lives along its shore. The lives notice the lake. That is the deal. That has always been the deal. It is enough.

The cheesecake was already spoken for — baked, sliced, and mostly gone by Thursday — but the week asked for one more thing from the oven, something with weight and warmth and the particular comfort of a streusel top. Pears were ripe on the counter, walnuts were in the jar by the stove, and the kitchen was already warm. That is how this cake happens: not by planning, but by the kitchen being ready before you are. I have been making versions of this coffee cake since Anna and Elsa were small enough to stand on chairs to watch it come out of the oven. It is not a dramatic recipe. It is a steady one. Those are the ones I trust.

Walnut Pear Coffee Cake

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 ripe pears, peeled, cored, and diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts, divided
• For the streusel topping:
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat and prepare. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan or a 9-inch square pan for a thicker cake, and set aside.
2. Make the streusel. In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon for the topping. Add the cold butter pieces and work them in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse, clumpy crumbs. Stir in 1/4 cup of the chopped walnuts. Refrigerate while you make the batter.
3. Whisk the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
4. Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar together with a hand or stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla.
5. Combine wet and dry. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the sour cream in two additions (begin and end with flour). Mix until just combined — do not overmix.
6. Fold in pears and walnuts. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the diced pears and the remaining 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts until evenly distributed through the batter.
7. Assemble and top. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Scatter the chilled streusel topping evenly over the surface, pressing it down very gently so it adheres.
8. Bake. Bake for 40–45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the streusel is golden. If the top browns too quickly, tent loosely with foil after 30 minutes.
9. Cool and serve. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature. Keeps well, covered at room temperature, for up to 3 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 345 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 17g | Carbs: 45g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 195mg