Pears are in full swing around here in the South and with all the low hanging fruit we are preparing for homemade pear butter and pear cobblers.
This year I have successfully made my first batch of spiced pear butter. I did not realize how much I liked it until I was able to control the amount of spices and sugar it contained.
This family recipe I will gladly share with all those who want an alternative to heavy sugared jams and jellies. It was quite simple using my blender and a crock pot. As well as some heavy ‘elbow-grease’ peeling and coring these pears. (Elbow-grease is the extra ‘umph’ it takes to peel and core 10-12 of these tough pears, but it’s well worth the extra effort).
Fortunately we have access to an abundance of these fruits and have been eating on them for some time now. Seems like months but we will miss their freshness and sweetness after the pears are gone.
I started by sending my staff (aka children) to the pear tree to knock down and pick up around a dozen pears. Some of these pears grow quite large and quite heavy. I do not want to be under it when it decides to fall from the limb. But, when you are young, you really don’t see or care about these unforeseen dangers picking your own fruit, thankfully.
Now the work begins…
The easiest way I found to process all of these pears was to peel them all whole with a vegetable peeler.
Then after I had rinsed them, I began coring and chopping them into large chunks to be pureed in my blender.
I used my Blendtec to puree the pears and no water was added. I just tossed the chunks into the jar and pulsed until they were liquified. You may need to slice the pears into smaller chunks depending on what your blender can handle.
Once the pears are pureed and there are no chunks, pour the pear liquid into your crock pot. I used my 5 quart crock, which was nearly full.
I added 1 cup sugar (I used pure cane sugar), 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon cloves and 1/2 teaspoon allspice. I really loved the way these spices turned out. (The flavors were quite spicy, so if you don’t like that ‘holiday’ spice taste you may want to omit the allspice and/or cloves.)
I stirred the pears, spices, and sugar well and let it cook on low all night (around 9 hours). The next morning I awoke to my house smelling fabulous! I opened the lid and cranked my crock on high. I stayed near and stirred it often to keep the sides from burning. The pear butter had reduced by nearly half after a few more hours of cooking on high.
I think this would make a great substitute for apple sauce in baked goods and pancakes. It would also make a great holiday gift accompanied with a loaf of home made bread.
Spiced Pear Butter
- 10 to 12 large hard pears
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- Peel, core and cut up pears. Add to blender and puree until smooth.
- Pour pureed pears into crock. Add sugar and spices. Stir well to mix.
- Cook on low for 9 hours.
- Cook on high, supervised, until pear butter has reduced by half and enough liquid has cooked out to make a consistency you like.
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