Fig Jam, Pear and Pistachio Coffeecake and Baking in a Toaster Oven

Fig Jam Pear and Pistachio Coffeecake RecipeDo you know how frustrating it can be when baking is your passion and you don’t have an oven?  VERY!!!  Two weeks ago, just as I was rolling out the pastry for Howie’s birthday pie, my oven ‘short circuited’.  Literally.  The control panel fritzed out and the room filled with an electrical burning smell.  But that wasn’t the worst.  The worst was the ear piercing beeping sound blaring from the oven.  Might I just mention that for safety reasons there is no way to turn the beeping sound off.  I had eight people coming for dinner in less than five hours and I had no oven.  Yes, there are worse things, but at that moment I was struggling to think of one.  Hours later a repair person arrived and informed me that my oven panel was shot.  What a surprise!  The only good news – he was able to shut off the oven’s main circuit breaker which stopped the annoying beeping.  I baked the pie at my neighbor’s house, finished the dinner on the barbecue, and everyone had a lovely evening in spite of the broken oven.
Fig Jam Pear and Pistachio Coffeecake Recipe Fig Jam Pear and Pistachio Coffeecake LR-2611Then I left town.  Not because my oven was broken, but because I went to spend some time with my Mom.  I returned home this past week raring and ready to embrace the Fall weather and to get back to baking and blogging.  And then I was told my new oven wouldn’t be installed for at least two more weeks.  GRRRR!!!  Then a light bulb came on in my head.  I have a really nice, and really large toaster oven.  It fits up to a 13×9-inch pan.  Heck, I can accomplish a lot of baking in that size space.  With the warm weather still lingering in Southern California, there was actually an advantage to not turning on a big oven.  Under the heading of  ‘where there is a will, there is a way’, I am just going to bake away in my little (large) toaster oven until my brand spanking new one is delivered.  And with that, I bring you coffeecake.
Fig Jam Pear and Pistachio Coffeecake RecipeThis cake was inspired by a recipe I saw on the Southern Living website.  I changed quite a bit in the recipe to get to the one you see here.  I was more than surprised by how well it turned out.  I was especially surprised by how well my toaster oven baked.  I think I might be onto something here.  Look for more toaster oven recipes in the future.
Fig Jam Pear and Pistachio Coffeecake Recipe

 

 

 




7 thoughts on “Fig Jam, Pear and Pistachio Coffeecake and Baking in a Toaster Oven

    • Deb, to be honest, I did lose my cool for a moment. I threw my hands up and said ‘that’s it, we’re just going to go out to dinner’. But once I knew I could count on my neighbors oven, I calmed down and carried on.

  1. Not having an oven definitely sucks!! At least you can use your toaster oven in the meantime. 🙂 The title of this cake makes it sound so fancy, I love it!

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