Pear-Cranberry Streusal Kuchen (Coffee Cake)

Pear-Cranberry Streusal Kuchen

Streusal is probably one of my most favorite words to say as well as one of my favorite things to eat. But now I have a new favorite word: Kuchen. Kuchen just means cake in German, but it’s so much more fun to call it kuchen, isn’t it? It’s especially fun to say those words together: streusal kuchen. It just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it. 😉 Whatever you want to call this recipe, it’s really good and very easy to make. It got the Brandon seal of approval and he rarely likes fruit-filled cakes, especially ones with cranberry. He said it tasted way too good to be a light recipe, but it is, so you don’t even have to feel guilty about eating it!





Pear and Cranberry Pear-Cranberry Streusal Kuchen



This is basically a coffee cake, but it doesn’t matter if you eat it for breakfast or dessert. I would venture to guess that you’ll want to have it both times! It’s an extremely moist cake, filled with caramelized pears and dried cranberries and then topped with a delicious streusal topping (I added some oats to give it a bit of crunch and make it healthier). You can make this recipe with apples and raisins if that’s more your thing. I had a bunch of Anjou pears sitting in my fridge, so I decided to use them instead.

Pear-Cranberry Streusal Kuchen

It’s supposed to be made in a 10″ springform pan, but I halved the recipe and used my mini springforms instead. I knew those things were going to come in handy! The recipe below is for the full size cake, but half the recipe makes 3 mini-cakes. I imagine you could also make this recipe in cupcake form, though I would probably use an extra large cupcake pan. This cake is so moist and filled with so much fruit that I feel like it may be a soggy mess if you make it too small.

I thought this cake tasted even better after sitting for a while, so it would be a really easy recipe to whip up at night and then eat for breakfast the next day. I think any day that starts with cake automatically has to be a good day.

Pear-Cranberry Streusal Kuchen

Pear-Cranberry Streusal Kuchen

adapted from Cooking Light

Breakfast, Dessert | Servings: 8-10
Prep time: 25 min | Cook time: 50 min | Total time: 1 hour 15 min

Ingredients

  • 5 cups (about 4 large) chopped Anjou (or whatever is in season/your favorite) pears (substitute: Golden Delicious or Rome apples)
  • 2 tbsp. sugar, divided
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp. ginger or nutmeg
  • 3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
  • 1/4 cup egg substitute (or 1 egg)
  • 2 1/2 tbsp. canola or vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 tsp. grated lemon rind
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries (substitute: raisins)

Streusal:
Note: if you’re like me and you really like streusal, you may want to double this.

  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp. AP or whole wheat flour
  • 3 tbsp. rolled oats (optional)
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. ginger or nutmeg
  • 2 1/2 tbsp. cold butter or margarine
  • 2 tsp. light corn syrup

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees (F).
  2. Arrange chopped pears in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with 1 tbsp. sugar. Bake for 8 minutes, stirring well. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp. sugar and bake an 7 more minutes or until pears are slightly soft. Set aside to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees.
  3. While pears are baking, make the streusal: combine brown sugar, oats, flour, and spices in a small bowl. Using your fingers or a pastry blender cut in margarine and corn syrup until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Set aside.
  4. In a large bowl, combine with next flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
  5. In a smaller bowl, stir together buttermilk, egg substitute, oil, and lemon rind. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.
  6. Gently fold in pears and cranberries.
  7. Spoon mixture into a 10-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray; place pan on a baking sheet.
  8. Sprinkle streusal evenly over batter in pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes (20-25 minutes in mini springform pans) or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Serve slightly warm or room temperature.

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7 Comments

  1. Oh Yum! Pears and cranberries are my favorite. I wonder if it would work with fresh cranberries? I might have to give that a try!

    • The pears make it a very moist cake, so I think fresh cranberries might make it too soggy? But I bet it would be ok if you used less pears. Maybe half or 2/3 the amount? I still have tons of cranberries sitting in my freezer, so I’m going to have to try that, too!

  2. youre so cute lol.
    streusel kuchen. yum!

  3. love this!

    • Thanks, Tia! Your comments got caught by the spam filter for some reason, but I approved them. Hopefully that shouldn’t happen again anymore.

  4. #Pears and #cranberries are always good together, too: https://bit.ly/hs7EZI ( via @emiline200) #recipes

  5. Yep..I will eat just about anything with a streusal topping! Love your mini versions.