Powdered sugar, butter, all-purpose flour, vanilla, lemon, Granny Smith apple, pear (we used Bartlett), rosemary, milk, egg, salt!

If pear is the star of this danish, rosemary wins for best supporting flavor -- it's in the filling and the dough.

For butter's first trick (and not its last), it gets buzzed up into a simple, flaky food processor dough.

Buzz! We call this versatile move The A&M Lean.

Pinch! Just checking to see if it feels like wet sand, with some pea-sized pieces of butter, as hardlikearmour requests.

Some water and beaten egg gets mixed in for a soft, rich dough.

Part (wo)man, part machine on this task. With your hands, you can feel just when the dough comes together without over-working it.

Our favorite way to roll out pastry crust: between two floured layers of plastic wrap.

See, no tearing!

Four hands make transferring this wide load a cinch -- but if you only have two, you can just flop it over the rolling pin for extra support.

A&M pat this baby into place -- don't tug or stretch the dough, just ease it in.

Filling time! Some handsome Bartlett pears are eager to serve.

This is why we love hardlikearmour -- her filling was runny in an earlier iteration, so she added grated Granny Smith apple to boost the pectin and thicken the sauce. It works beautifully and adds a gentle tartness.

This is the way we core our pears (and apples) -- with a melon baller! Single use, shmingle use.

Amanda steadies the filling bowl while Merrill digs in to get the job done.

We liked the hearty chunkiness of the pears, but you're welcome to cut them more finely.

More butter! This time, to dot the filling.

Onto the top crust -- A&M team up again to fold the edges under.

After baking the beauty for 45 minutes and cooling for 15 more, we pour on the simple vanilla glaze. This detail really puts the Danish in it.

Holiday breakfast, anyone?

Feeds a (very happy) crowd.

Ready to go: egg, butter, flour, wheat germ, pear, brown sugar, walnuts, buttermilk, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg.

Merrill peels a pear (we used Bosc and didn't want any tough skin stowed away in the cake.)

Why, Mr. Brown Sugar, what a nice hat you're wearing today!

This cake packs a lot of spice.

A sweet little admirer stares watchfully into the food processor.

Amanda freshly grates nutmeg.

A pile of pears dusted with spices -- they're everywhere!

Merrill whips the eggs and buttermilk into shape (for the cake).

More butter joins the dry ingredients in ye old trusty food processor.

Wet meet dry, like sand on the shore.

Gently layering the pears.

They're drowning! Just kidding: the penultimate layer of batter.

And, this wouldn't be coffee cake ...

... without the crumb topping.

Good morning!