My family has a pear tree and lots of extra pears this year so my mom shared two big grocery sacks full of pears with us this week. I've been having fun coming up with creative ways to use them.
I've already made some pear sauce and am thinking of pear muffins or pear crisp, but I'd love to hear any and all ideas you all might have for ways to use the abundance of pears I have on my hands right now. I'm especially looking for very inexpensive, fairly simple ideas which are also nutritious.
Any input? I'll share what I end up doing with them in a post soon!
My dearly departed grandmother used to get pears each year from her next door neighbor. She simply peeled, cored, and cubed the pears and cooked them down in a sugar syrup, then sealed them in hot jars in a water bath. Depending on how thick the syrup was, we either used them as preserves on toast or as regular canned pears. These cans of luciousness were a coveted gift from Grandma.
We have an overly productive pear tree here as well. This year I decided to try something beyond pear butter but couldn’t find a recipe I was happy with. I pealed and sliced about 30 of them and cooked them down in the crock pot overnight and refrigerated them to give myself a bit more time to decide. This morning I cooked them down with about 1 cup or sugar for an hour and then added about 1 tablespoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg. When my daughter got up (and mind you this is the child that has historically disliked all forms of cooked fruit for 17 years), she immediately went to find the yummy smell, made pancakes, and ate them instead of syrup :).
I’m freezing the rest for the same purpose for winter breakfasts. I believe this mixture will also make yummy pies or crisps as well.
I’m off to harvest another few buckets to work on while its too cold to do much outside.
Dehydrated pears are delicious and pretty easy to make. I canned a couple dozen jars of pears a couple of months ago and we opened our first can last night and they were delicious!
Fruit Pizza! A sugar cookie crust, frosted with cream cheese (a little honey & vanilla mixed in). Arrange sliced pear sections on top along with whatever other fruits are on sale (or free). Grapes, mandarin oranges, and strawberries are good choices. Delicious and healthy!
We wash ours, slice them to about a 1/4 inch and dehydrate them. The sugar gets concentrated and they taste delicious, so we just eat them like you would apple slices, but you can freeze the slices, too.
Pear sauce! Just like apple sauce, but with a new fruit!
We love pears in salad. Or you can use this recipe in lieu of salad:
Pear Halves with Blue Cheese and Toasted Nuts—Halve and hull ripe pears, place one packed, generous tablespoon of blue cheese in pear. Sprinkle with toasted walnuts or pecans. Serve.
Here’s a great pumpkin pears soup that i found @ shoplifting with permission’s site (http://www.shopliftingwithpermission.com/):
http://www.recipezaar.com/Pumpkin-Pear-Soup-82943
She said it was awesome and we’re making it this weekend!!! (Tons of pear sales @ our local san diego stores for the past few weeks.)
The November Cooking Light has a recipe for a pear pie that looks good!
If you have a food dryer (or can pick one up at the local thrift store) they make absolutely DELICIOUS dried pears. I’m telling you, they taste just like candy!
Just slice them thinly (about 1/4 inch thick), they take about 8 hours to dry.
Our family loves Baked Pears– try this recipe. It’s delicious on a cold winter night.
2 T unsalted butter
2 T sugar
2 pears, unpeeled, halved and cored.
1/2 c. heavy cream
Butter shallow baking dish with 1 T butter. Sprinkle 1 T sugar over bottom. Put pears,cut side down in dish. Sprinkle remaining sugar and cut-up butter. Bake 10 min. at 400 degrees. Pour cream over pears and return to oven or 20 min. Serve warm.
Check out this blog, http://www.reluctantentertainer.com/
I think it was October 30th she posted that she made her NO Peel Apple cake using pears. You have to scroll down to find it but it looks yummy!!
Pear Honey. It’s easy to make and tastes great on biscuits. Do a google search and it will bring up a bunch of recipes.
Have you made pear butter?
Hey Julie,
I had someone give me some pears this year and she said, “you’ll have to cook them” I asked if they were “cooking pears” and she said yes, so apparently some varieties are only good cooked-hope this helps!
A few ideas that came immediately to my mind were pear butter, dried pear rings, and pear juice for smoothies.
I have never made pear butter but I would guess it is similar to apple butter. We have bought dried pear pieces at the store and they were very good as a snack or to add to granola or trail mix. These would work with a dehydrator. If you have a blender or juicer, pears make an excellent base juice to go with other fruits that are less plentiful (berries, pineapple, kiwi, citrus, etc.). Then you could freeze the juice in smaller containers or add yogurt or milk to make smoothies.
I am sure others have more creative ideas. Those are just a few that popped into mind.
Enjoy your plentiful pears! 🙂
I had the same pear “problem” recently. So I found a recipe on the internet on how to make pear bread. I made 4 loaves. I froze some loaves and used them for a camping trip breakfast during the summer. The pear bread was a huge success. Now many of my friends want pear bread for Christmas!!!
this works best with very ripe pears.
We dry them on drying racks in a dry place… they are so sweet and just like candy… if you have a wood stove in your basement, that’s the perfect place!
my aunt had a HUGE pear tree when I was growing up and she and my mother would put up pears for days! My favorite was the pear preserves the canned.
Hi Crystal,
Here is one of my favorite recipes for using pears:
Fresh Pear Cake
2 eggs
1 egg white
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. honey (can substitue for more applesauce)
1 c. applesauce
3/4 c. oil
1/4 c. plain yogurt
1/2 c. pumpkin or cooked squash
3 c. flour (I used 2 whole wheat and 1 white)
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1 1/2 c. finely chopped, peeled pears (2 or 3 med.)
1 t. vanilla
1 1/4 c. powdered sugar
2 T. milk
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs on medium speed. Gradually add sugar, honey, applesauce & oil. Mix together yogurt and pumpkin, set aside. Combine all dry indredients. Alternate dry mix with pumpkin mix into the eggs and sugar. Stir in pears and vanilla. Batter will be stiff.
Spoon into a greased and floured 10 inch tube pan (angel food cake pan or bundt). Bake at 350 for 60-65 min. or until cake tests done. Let cool in pan for 10 min. before inverting onto a serving plate.
In a small bowl combine powdered sugar and milk. Drizzle over warm cake. Cool completely.
Yields: 14-16 servings.
This is a favorite in our house during the fall season. But here in Florida, I’m not sure if we will find pears. Still learning all the “seasons” and what is available during the fall. God bless you as you find ways to use up your pears.
Blessings, Pamela (Oregonian, turned Floridian)
I am allergic to apples so I use pears in any recipe that calls for apples. Pear sauce freezes well. Also pear pie and pear crisp are wonderful. You may need a squeeze of lemon juice to give the tartness of apples if your pears are very sweet. What a blessing to have all those wonder pears!
I love pear butter on toast. Mmmm.
I know it’s not the healthiest, but pear pie is delicious!
Sliced pears on salads add an unexpected yummy kick, esp. with a bit of crumbled bleu cheese. (I see crumbled bleu cheese in the fancy cheese case on manager markdown for .99 cents every now and then at Dillons!)
I often find that the commercial grower sites have some of the most wonderful ideas! calpear.com (California pears) has wonderful recipes for appetizers, and main dishes as well as sweets (which I am trying to limit!). There are some pork with pears recipes that sound scrumptious. Perfect for fall.
I just got some pears from my parent’s trees as well. I bought the premade pizza dough mix from walmart – $0.33 a bag and found goat cheese on manager’s special at the grocery store. I made pear and goat cheese pizza with a little drizzle of honey, some ground black pepper and a little salt. Its sounds a little weird but it was fantastic and seemed very gourmet compared to a lot of my bargain meals…
I have made fruit bread/muffins with them and also pureed them and made fruit leather.
I was also the recipient of some pears and made pear jelly. It was soooooo easy. The hardest part was cutting up all the pears. I just followed the directions inside the SureJel package. We now have several jars set up and the girls love it on their peanut butter and jelly snadwiches. Also I’ve noticed the jars on clearence at Walmart on occasion so I buy them all up.
Yay! I love reading these. We have a huge pear tree with BEAUTIFUL pears! We got 15+ laundry baskets full this year. We canned 5 and gave the rest away to church family. I never knew what I could do with them all. Thank you for posting this!! I am excited for next year!
Pear Cranberry Crisp
Toss pears with fresh cranberries and a bit of sugar (and any spices that you like). Add a streusel topping and bake until bubbling. Serve with a side of vanilla ice cream. 🙂
My neighbor’s pear tree was overloaded this summer and they allowed us to pick a bushel of fruit! I canned some in cinnamon syrup, some in light syrup, and I also made pear preserves. I had never done much canning and this year I did that stuff plus applesauce and tomatoes. I found the pears to be the easiest. The preserves were easy as well, and you can do a low sugar variety also- they make two types of pectin you can use. Yummy!
I just made a batch of pear-apple cinnamon pancakes. I just chopped them really small and through them in the mix. They were so yummy! They would still be good too with just pear and cinnamon.
I usually cut mine up like you would apples for a pie. Put the pears in a saucepan and just cover with water and boil til they start to get soft. Then put them in a freezer bag and freeze til ready to use. Use them to make pear pie. Same as you would make apple pie. You can hardly tell the difference.
I had the same luck this year though mine was from a pear tree on a vacant lot near my house and I had 3 five gallon buckets full! I had lots of luck with pear sauce and also Pear butter (just like apple butter but with pears and I think it is even tastier with pears!)
I poach them with maple syrup and cloves or all spice in the water. I then serve with vanilla ice cream. Yum.
I agree that they go great with pork. You could use some of the pear sauce as a side also.
Make Pear Butter! It is so good on biscuits and your little ones would probably love a pear butter sandwich on your homemade bread. I know my little guy does.
We got a plethora of pears this year too. The neighbors to my Hubby’s work has a pear tree that he planted 45 years ago (!) and he gave an over abudance this year. Hubs got permission to pick pears every day after work. I would send him with bags to fill and he would surely fill them. THis happened everyday for a week. I finally had to tell him to stop. 🙂 SUch a blessing!
After two big batches of pear butter and several pear crisps I finally decided to process them for the freezer. I just peeled, cored, and cut them up. I then put 3 cups worth into a freezer bag with a light syrup pack and some Fruit Fresh. They come out of the freezer still crisp and delicious. We will have pear crisps for the rest of the winter. YEAH!
If you are short on time, you can can pears after washing their skins and coring them and when you open the jar skin them then. I did this when I had a bushel to get done up fast. Have a great day!
We use pears all the time in our fresh juice. Apples, carrots and pears are our staples in the juicer… it makes it nice and sweet and gives it a kind of creamy texture!
We can ours in syrup. Just peel, core, pour in some simple syrup, and can.
My mom makes the yummiest pear paninis. She takes a slice or two of turkey, a couple of slices of pear, a fresh basil leaf or two and some provolone cheese. They are FABULOUS! If you don’t have a panini press you can still make do if you have two cast iron skillets that fit inside each other. Put them both on medium low. Put the sandwich in the bottom of a very lightly greased bigger one and then put the smaller one on top. You can leave them warming in the oven while you make the rest.
There is a recipe on the Food Network site that Jaime Oliver did. It was a baked recipe for pears, pork chops, parsnips and potatoes and it was absolutely fabulous and easy to make.
Pears in the crockpot with chicken or pork. Make baby food for your growing babe (If you’ve got the freezer space!). My little guy ate pureed pears for a LONG time!
Erin
Puree the peeled pears and make fruit leather. It is so flexible and wonderful when made with pears. Come see what I’ve got going on over at my blog:
http://thelittleredhenfoodsite.blogspot.com/
I would think you could do almost anything with a pear as you could with an apple – so why not make pear chips?
I am actually making apple chips as we speak – line your cookie sheet with parchment paper, sprinkle w/ a little bit of conf. sugar and line with paper thin sliced apples (or pears) and then sprinkle a little bit more of the conf. sugar on top and put in your oven for 2.5 hours at 235 – let cool before packing up – will keep up to two weeks in an airtight container 🙂
Yes, Melissa K is right by referring my NO PEEL CAKE RECIPE! Check out my blog – it’s been a hit!
I think you have lotsa advice for pears 🙂 I love to make pear butter too, just made it a couple nights ago 🙂
I always make Free Form Pear Torte from a neighbors pears. She hates them and loved the dessert I made for her out of them! It involves taking a pie crust and putting on a pizza stone. Then pile the middle with pears that have been tossed with a little flour. Then you pile on a combination of crushed ginersnapes, brown sugar (just a touch), spices, walnuts and I include dried cranberries. Fold edges up around, there will be a large open mountain of dessert in the middle of the bent up edges…no worries, the mountain shrinks, but doesn’t make a mess. Bake, and if you want to be fancy then drizzle entire thing and brush the edges with maple syrup about 10 minues before removing from oven.
I can get you the exact recipe, but it is pretty forgivig and is very yummy, even to a pear disliker 🙂
Heather
I just made some boneless pork chops with pears last week. You take the pork chops put them in a pan, dump pears (mine were home-canned, so I dumped the juice and all over the pork chops) on the chops, (if they are not canned you will need to add a little water and butter) then sprinkle a little brown sugar over it all. Cover and bake on low for 3-4 hours. It was very yummy.
I’m going to make pear puree baby food tomorrow to put in the freezer. Not very useful if you don’t have a puree-age baby in the house, though. 🙂
Don’t forget to share some with church family and neighbors! Does your city have a food pantry/soup kitchen type place?
Oh the Pears. You can see my blog to see the 150+ pounds of pears I put up this year! Yikes! And that’s all from one tree!!!!
Anyway, this is what I did:
*Lots of quarts of sliced pears in a light syrup. We’ll eat these until next year.
*Pear Butter==lots and lots of it. Then, I tied each jar with a little raffia, added a pretty pewter spreader I found on clearance for a dollar, and voila, teacher’s gifts!
*I also made a few half-pints of pear perserves as special gifts for my grandmother and best friend. These are chock-full of sugar, so a little goes a long way.
A few tips:
*I sliced and cored my pears with my Pampered Chef apple corer/slicer/thingamabob. It was worth its weight in gold as those puppies were tough to peel. I sliced, then peeled.
*Ball Blue Book of Canning-priceless!
*Use your food processor for your pear butter. I dumbly thought I’d have to use a food mill. After lots of cranking and very little smushed pear, my hubby suggested the food processor. I’d of thought of it sooner or later.:)
Good luck!
Toss sliced pears with some sliced apples, strawberries, bananas, and grapes for a quick and nutritious fruit salad.
Or, if you’re feeling decadent, drizzle a bit of melted chocolate over pear slices and top with chopped walnuts for dessert.
Our neighbors can the pears so they have them year round. They even drink the juice with breakfast so nothing goes to waste.
Smiles,
Lea
Funny you should ask. Another blog I read just did a series of “I have a ton of pears” posts. They are loaded with crazy recipes. Let us know if you do any of them! Here are the addresses… I never can remember how to make them links in the comments.
http://a-homesteading-neophyte.blogspot.com/2008/10/got-pears.html
http://a-homesteading-neophyte.blogspot.com/2008/10/pear-busters.html
http://a-homesteading-neophyte.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-will-need-jam-jelly-butter-amd.html
http://a-homesteading-neophyte.blogspot.com/2008/10/and-then-there-were-none.html
Haven’t read all the comments, but you could use the pear sauce, pureed, in recipes like you do apple sauce.
I like to slice pears on top of fried pork chops or fried ham. Cook the pork chops by dredging in flour, salt, and pepper and fry quickly in a little oil. Seed and dice a jalapeno pepper and slice a pear or two and add to the skillet after the pork chops have been browned on both sides. Add two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, cover and cook on a medium-low heat, checking frequently and stir to keep everything from sticking and burning. When the pork chops are completely cooked through and the pears have turned to butter, the dish is done. The bits of jalapena will stick to the pork chops, making them taste fantastic. This will have a hot, sweet and sour taste. You can use a regular bell pepper and a few pepper flakes if your family doesn’t handle hot peppers too well. Plain fried ham is good cooked the same way, only omit the flour.
Hi Crystal!
I’d second the recommendation for No-Peel Pear Cake!
http://www.reluctantentertainer.com/2008/10/if-you-think-apples-were-good-try-pears.html
Easy, easy, easy. And oh, so delicious!
Our favorite is dried pears and pear fruit leather. Blend it up put in dehydrator!!
Enjoy our small crop was eaten as fast as they rippened!
I can the pears in a lightly sweet syrup and my sons like them better than storebought canned pears. We have pear salads, and a warm pear cobbler with cheese on top that is good. It’s made with a cup of sugar, cup of flour cup of milk all poured into a casserole dish with a melted stick of butter. Then you spoon the pears and some juice over that and bake.
Dry them!!! My mom gave me some dried pears a while ago and I am wanting some more! She just sliced them and took a can of pineapple chunks tossed that in there with the pineapple chunks and dried them all! The pineapple gave the pears a nice flavor, YUM!
The Crockpot365 blog has a great recipe for applesauce and another for apple butter. I’m sure you could sub in pears. I’ve had pear butter before it is very good.
Or
Cut them up into cubes. Throw into a ramekin with a little flour, cinnamon, sugar and oats, cover, bake in a 350 oven for 20-30 mins. You have instant fruit crisp, and its low fat.
Or
Cut the pear into thin slices place on a round of sugar cookie dough, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, and bake.
I also have a pear tree and I am sad to say we let ours rot. The problem is, our pears never get soft and juicy – they stay hard and dry. Is there something I am missing – something I should be doing to make these pears more edible?? Should I use them for baking?? Any help would be great!
I make pasta tossed roasted shallots, blue cheese, toasted hazelnuts and chopped pears. Clarice
pear butter
pear honey
pear preserves
pear cake
pear bread
pear muffins
canned pears
pear chutney
pear relish
pear pie
pear tart
poached pears
baby food
My family’s favorite is dried pears (they are like candy). We made a box, and put 100 watt light bulbs in the bottom with a small fan, and racks that are wood frames with screen on them. A fruit dryer would work, or even a rack in a very low oven overnight.
I had the most amazing pear appetizers at a friend’s house last month. I can’t find the exact recipe online, so I’m going to have to get it from my friend, but the basic idea is:
Slice whole pears into thirds lengthwise, remove core. Tear up green lettuce and toss with pecans, blue cheese, and a light vinaigrette (at least, I think it was a vinaigrette). Layer lettuce between pear slices so that the pear is reassembled into a whole pear again (just with filling between). Lightly drizzle with honey.
Soooo good. And not hard at all for something that looks like it came from Martha Stewart.
You can poach pears in a bottle of wine with cinnamon sticks, clove and star anise (or other spices) and serve with ice cream. Also, I love pears added to a green salad–add a little goat cheese and walnuts and you’ve gone gourmet!
I like pears in savory dishes, like in the slow cooker with pork or chicken breasts. Also, this year I enjoyed making pumpkin pear soup:
http://www.recipezaar.com/Pumpkin-Pear-Soup-82943
Sliced pears go well on a salad with nuts, cheese, and a fruity vinegarette dressing. Not very exciting but they can also be filled with cottage cheese or yogurt.
I love fruit leather . . . recipe @ http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1819,156190-241196,00.html
I’ve made many apple recipes, replacing the apples with pears. They are just as yummy!!!
I haven’t read thru all the comments, so this may have already been posted. Pears make great baby food! Just puree in your food processor and fill empty ice cube trays (each cube is a 1 oz serving). My boys literally smack thier lips when they get pears! 🙂
Poached pears are simple and make a tasty side. Just slice and peel the pears, and boil them in your favorite 100% juice. They also freeze well this way. My son loves frozen fruit in his oatmeal! And it helps to cool the oatmeal down.
I bet peeled, sliced pear would be fantastic in your baked oatmeal! We did this recently with leftover apples, and it was fantastic!
If you have a food processor to process them in, the peels make a good substitution in zucchini bread recipes!
I’d love to have this problem =)
Slice and freeze for kefir smoothies, cold teethers, crisps, pies or cobblers, salads, muffins, breads, etc. I love my freezer!
When I have an abundance of fruit, I will make pie fillings, put them in a ziploc bag, put the ziploc bag in a pie plate and freeze. Then when making a pie, you can make a pie crust, take the frozen, pie plate molded filling, put onto the crust, defrost some and bake. Makes for a quick and easy dessert!
Happy Pearing!
Laralee
http://PlymouthRockRanch.com
Recording the Faithfulness and Provision of God for Future Generations
Oh Sweetie – wish I had your problem! We lost our pear tree this year. I always can mine, sliced. I’ve also frozen them in the past, also sliced. Canning is a lot of work though – but they look so good in the jars! Look up freezer methods…you might need lemon juice or fruit fresh. Then: use the slices just like you would in apple pie! It’s awesome with fresh lattice crust, a little cinnamon, sugar, and a few pats of butter.
We slice them and mix them with yogurt and honey…mmm!
Do you have a juicer? Pear juice is amazing!
If you have a dehydrator, try drying some. I did that this year for the first time and they are really good. Just peel, slice in uniform slices, dip in lemon water, and then dry them. Yummy!
The current issue of Cooking Light has a recipe for Pear Streusal pie that looks good!
I always like canning pears for a treat in the winter too. Method I use can be found here:
http://mrspear.blogspot.com/2007/10/canning-pears.html
I don’t think this was asked already – would you share your pear sauce recipe? We tried making that one year and it ended up gross, but we didn’t have a recipe. 🙂 Thanks!
Caramelized pears:
Preheat the oven to 400. Peel, halve and core the pears, put in a large baking pan with a few tablespoons of butter (cut into small bits), a few tablespoons of brown sugar, a dash of salt, and lemon juice or vanilla if desired sprinkled over. Give it all a toss and bake for about 45 minutes, or until the pears are dark brown around the edges and starting to brown all over and are fork-tender. Give them a toss halfway through baking. These are awesome as an accompaniment to roasted meats, on top of ice cream, granola, etc.
Also, look up recipes for “pear clafouti”–it’s a custard-slash-cake that you bake in a pie pan and is good either warm, room temp or cold.
Make pear FRUIT LEATHER!
I made pear jam a few years ago and gave it as Christmas gifts.
Hot water bath for the pears equals canned pears. These would work great for baby food later as well.
If all else fails share them with your readers- LOL
I would love to have fresh fruit dropped on my doorstep and have the dilema of how to make something out of it.
Can them in fruit juice and enjoy them for the rest of the year!
We make pear relish with onions, peppers, pears, sugar, vinegar and pickling spices. A very tasty condiment!
While I was growing up a neighbor would share her abundance of pears with us each season. We would eat some fresh, but the rest my mom would simmer with cinnamon sticks. They become soft and very sweet and make the house smell wonderful.
Actually you can find it here, http://dreamdinners.com/main.php?static=dd_cookbook, click on the link in the last paragraph, and scroll down to page 24 of 45
You could send some to me. 😉
Baked pears make a great dessert.
As several others have suggested, pear sauce would be good.
You could make pear spice bread (just replace apples)
Pear upside down cake (Epicurious has a fantastic plum upside down cake – you could just use pears instead)
Pear crumble
My favorite idea is still send some to me. 😉
Crystal,
Maybe this would be a great time for us to have a canning day. I have some jars left over, but I am out of lids.
Baked pears stuffed with nuts are delicious. Think baked apples.
I love to bake pears with pork. There is a good freezer recipe on dreamdinners.com that uses pears.
I made caramel spice pear butter last year and it was wonderful. Great on bagels or over ice cream!!
definitely pear crisp. use just a little cinnamon and real maple syrup to toss the sliced and peeled pears in. ina garten on the food network has a wonderful topping…i think it is for a pear crisp even! i make a double batch of topping and then freeze it.
This is not very inexpensive but very tasty – I made it one year in abundance and sold it in jars at a craft fair. You can make it into tarts or pies.
Pear Mincemeat
7 pounds ground up pears
1 pound ground up raisins
2/3 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 pounds sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Cook until thick and put in jars.
You should make some No-Peel Pear Cake!
I have only made the apple version, and it is so easy and yummy… but the gal I got the recipe from says to try it with pears, too!
Here is the link to my blog when I made it with apples:
http://littlehomeontherange.blogspot.com/2008/10/no-peel-apple-cake.html
Here is the link to the original site when she made it with pears:
http://www.reluctantentertainer.com/2008/10/if-you-think-apples-were-good-try-pears.html
I’ve received an abundance from my mother-in-law this year and have made pear butter and am going to make No-Peel Pear Cake tonight. (The recipe is originally for No-Peel Apple Cake, but I’m using what I have!)
recipe: http://www.reluctantentertainer.com/2008/10/no-peel-apple-cake-and-winner.html
I work for Jenny Craig and on there website under thanksgiving webasode they have a recipe for a carmalized pear salad. that is super easy and super cheep!!!
Here is a link to a post I did with my recipe for pear bread and pear preserves. I made pear muffins with some of my batter. They taste similar to banana bread. The pear preserves is not for the bread- it is a very sweet preserve for biscuits or something more bland or you will get high on sugar!
http://southernseven.blogspot.com/2008/09/pear-muffins-and-pear-preserves.html
I’ve received an abundance from my mother-in-law this year and have made pear butter and am going to make No-Peel Pear Cake tonight. (The recipe is originally for No-Peel Apple Cake, but I’m using what I have!)
recipe: http://www.reluctantentertainer.com/2008/10/no-peel-apple-cake-and-winner.html
I love cottage cheese with cut up pears!!
I like to slice pears into a mixed green salad, along with some toasted pecans and crumbled blue cheese, tossed with a homemade vinaigrette – delicious!
Sort of lame and you might of already done this, but go to allrecipes.com and type in pears and see what pops up. I am always doing that when I get great deals on produce. 🙂 We had the best potato dish last weekend since I had a ton of potatoes since I got a 7lb bag for 99cents last week. 🙂
All the ideas mentioned sound amazing. We love pears. If they are mushy I puree them and we use it over pancakes/french toast. Nice change from syrup and if they were just given to you FREE!
Happy day.
I used to get Pears every year from Harry & David for Christmas gift. We did not eat pears so I made Pear cake that was wonderful. Very moist. Fam could not even tell there were pears in it. I don’t still have the recipe but I am sure you can find one online.
loooooove pears, and two of our favorites are Pear Cream Pie and Baked Pear Frittata (did I spell that right?) for breakfast. I will not pretend these are low-fat, b/c I do not cook/bake low-fat, being of the mind that food should taste good, and then you should be active. you can email me if you’d like recipes. good luck! I’d probably also try pear butter…wouldn’t that be great on homemade toast???
This pear bread recipe is GREAT! It’s inexpensive to make and tastes yummy.
Pear Bread
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup plain yogurt (may substitute sour cream or buttermilk)
1 cup diced pears, peeled
1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
Cream butter & sugar; beat in eggs, one at a time. In another bowl, stir together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda & nutmeg. Add alternately to creamed mixture with yogurt; stir in pears & vanilla. Spoon batter into one 9×5″ or three mini (5 3/4x3x2″) loaf pan(s). Bake in a preheat 350° oven for 55-60 minutes for the 9×5″ pan or about 30 minutes for the mini loaves. Bread is done when toothpick tests done & golden brown on top.
I don’t have canning equipment, nor do I know how to can, but I have made “canned pears” by just simmering pears on the stovetop in sugar water. Just put in however much sugar you’re comfortable with. Then you could put them in containers and freeze them.
pear butter is delicious–sometimes needs a little bit of sweetener depending on the ripeness of the fruit. and easy–just cook down the sauce, add the sweetener (even just apple or orange juice concentrate), season to taste (nutmeg is simple)–and enjoy on some of those baked goods!
Pear-Gorganzola Pizza
Sliced pears
Gorganzola cheese
Chicken (you can omit this)
Sweet BBQ sauce
Pre-made pizza crust
carmelized onions (email me or leave me a comment to find out how to do this if you don’t know how)
Spread BBQ sauce on pizza
Sprinkle carmelized onions, chicken, and cheese on crust.
Fan out sliced pears around the crust. Bake according to the pizza crust directions. I promise, this is soooo good!
Dry them or make fruit leather. It would make great snacks.
There is a recipe for “Pear Honey” on kellishouse.blogspot.com, that could be fun.
If you have a dehydrator, slice your pears, but them in sugar water with a tsp of karo syrup and dehydrate them for YUMMY snacks of pear slices! We LOVE them at our house!
We had free pears from an acquaintance here in town and have been making pear butter, pear sauce, pear sorbet, pear cake, and pears in green salad with nuts and raspberry vinegarette or in fruit salad (kids like it in Jello, too.) One year she gave us so many we canned 250 quarts and 100 pints; that lasted us almost 3 years. :o)
ENJOY!
My husband and I have been enjoying pears in our salads. Toss spinach leaves, walnuts, and pears with balsamic vinaigrette. It is tasty and healthy! You can add some diced, cooked chicken and serve it as a meal.
I heard that a pear cranberry pie is wonderful!!!
Pear Cranberry Pastry Perfection
For the crust:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces
4 to 6 tablespoons ice water
For the filling:
1 cup pecan pieces, toasted
1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar (we used Sucanat)
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
2 1/2 pounds of pears, peeled, cored, cut into medium pieces
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, in pieces
2 tablespoons instant tapioca
1 large egg
sanding sugar (optional)
Gruyere cheese, grated (optional)
1. In a food processor, pulse together the flour and the salt. Add the butter. Pulse until mostly crumbly with some large pieces. With machine running, add 4 tablespoons of the water. Process until dough just holds together. If it is too dry, add remaining water as needed. Dough should not be wet. Turn dough out onto plastic wrap. Divide in half. Press each half together into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate one hour or overnight.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one disk of the dough to a 12-inch circle. Brush off excess flour. Fit dough into a 9-inch pie dish. Press the edges down around the inside. Trim dough to a half inch over dish. Roll out remaining disk of dough. Transfer disk to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Chill pie shell and disk of dough. If desired, roll the remaining dough scraps into a think disk. Cut out shapes with a small cookie cutter. Chill the shapes on a baking sheet with the disk of dough.
3. In a large bowl combine the pecans, cinnamon, salt, sugar, cranberries, pears, butter, and tapioca. Toss well. Transfer the mixture to the cold pie shell.
4. Whisk egg with 2 teaspoons of water. Brush the egg glaze around the rim of the dough. Transfer the cold disk of dough on top, press down gently. Press the top and bottom pieces of dough together, around the rim. Trim the top dough with scissors to about 1 inch. Fold it under. Crimp the edge of the pie as desired.
5. Brush the surface and edges of the pie with the egg wash. Make 3 slits in the top for steam to escape. If using, apply the cold shapes to the top of the pie with the egg wash. Sprinkle sugar over the top if desired, or grate a bit of Gruyere cheese into the crust. Freeze pie for 30 minutes to firm up the butter. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. with a rack in the lower third.
6. Bake until the crust begins to brown, about 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F. Continue to bake until crust is richly golden brown, rotating as needed, 40 – 55 minutes. Transfer pie to wire cooling rack. Cut when cool.
What about pear butter? I’ve been canning apples like crazy and have been making apple core & peeling jelly with the leftovers that would just have been tossed. I assume you could make jelly out of pears too? That’s something you could make regardless of what you do with the rest of the pears.
What about pear butter? I’ve been canning apples like crazy and have been making apple core & peeling jelly with the leftovers that would just have been tossed. I assume you could make jelly out of pears too? That’s something you could make regardless of what you do with the rest of the pears.
We have two pear trees that produce abundantely every year. I can them just as sliced pears to eat throughout the winter, make pear jam, and you can also make pear jelly using the juice from the pear (but this one is a lot of work and I did not do it after the one time). My favorite is Pear-Pineapple Sauce. Mix diced pears and crushed canned pineapple together in a saucepan (just do 50/50) and cover with sugar. Let them cook down until the sugar melts and mixture becomes thick. Process for 15 min in a water bath canner. This is probably not too healthy, but it is delicious! Very good over biscuits or sliced ham for supper.
Hi Crystal,
I love both your blogs and benefit from them daily!
A friend gave us an abundance of pears a few months ago and, after searching online for easy recipes, the easiest I found was the pear sauce (I’m also expecting my third baby–so easy was the only thing I could do!). I guess it’s a little boring to only do one thing, but my family has benefited from having the pear sauce on hand since it’s a nice alternative to apple sauce. Another idea is to substitute it for apple sauce in muffins or apple sauce cookies. Have fun, but don’t wear yourself out!
Pear smoothies with frozen bananas, Pear pie, Pear Jam, dice pears and freeze them and eat them as snack!!! (thaw them a little b4 eat them). Mix them with yogurt b4 serving yogurt…. i love pears, if i were you, i will just eat them all day long. can i have some
I think you can pretty much do anything with pears as you do with apples- Pies, tarts, can them, pear sauce, cinnamon pears..ect
I love pear crisp. Its easy -you don’t even need a recipe. Wash, peel and slice pears. Pour melted butter over them. Mix a little flour, oats, sugar, and cinnamon. Sprinkle over top and place them in over 350 for about 25 minutes or until tender. I also love themsliced and peeled in plain yogurt. How nice of your mom to share with you!
We also have an overabundance of free pears – and they are delicious as the star of a salad! Just toss with lemon juice to avoid browning. They pair really well with walnuts and blue cheese.
Also, an incredibly simple cobbler recipe is just 4 cups of fruit, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 egg and 6 tbls melted butter. Place the fruit in a greased glass baking dish, combine the sugar, flour and egg until crumbly and use to top the fruit. Drizzle with melted butter and bake for 45 minutes at 375 (35 minutes in a convection oven). Add cinnamon to the pears beforehand if desired. I make this recipe several times a week during any season when we receive free fruit (cherries, apples, peaches) and it works well with all of them.
I modified a recipe from Cooking Light to make Pear Walnut bread. It was delicious and healthy!
http://husbandwifehappylife.blogspot.com/2008/09/little-experimentation.html
Pear butter (like apple butter, but with pears)
Dried for use later
Pear Chips (?)
Cut up on yogurt
Baked into bread and frozen
Canned or frozen as diced pears
Oh, I love pears! They are my favorite fruit. I wish we had access to a productive pear tree!
If I were you, I’d just make as much pear sauce as I possibly could (because it freezes and cans well) and use it on absolutely everything: toast, pb&j instead of the j, replacing oil in cakes and muffins, topping jamprint cookies. Yum.
But we also like pears diced and cooked in pancakes, and sliced and dipped into melted dark chocolate. Have a fondue party with some of that free Walgreen’s chocolate of a few weeks ago!
And don’t forget: make and freeze baby food!
A neighbor of mine made pear preserves, the boys loved them.
Do you have a dehydrator? Dried pears are really good! They’re a great snack food. (If you don’t have a dehydrator, I think you could also dry them in the oven.)
How about just canning them? You could then have them a lot longer. Or you could freeze them in quart bags, and have “fresh” pears or pear sauce whenever you want by defrosting them.
My family likes to buy up the cheap discounted pears at the grocers that might be a bit bruised. We then chop them up into little bits, and set them into jelly (or as you Americans would say it, Jell-o) in summer for a tasty, yet nutritious cool treat! The best bit? Minimal time and effort!
Oh i forgot! This is great frozen as well.. It is really simple..
Dehydrated pears are one of our favorite winter snacks! We also made apple/pear sauce for the first time this year and it’s yummy. Oh and speaking of healthy, we used either concentrated apple juice or apple cider to sweeten it. VERY little sugar is needed if any.
Do you have a dehydrator? My girlfriend makes dried pears every year with hers. She knows its my favorite Christmas treat. Well, that and her vanilla creme fudge!
Blushing Pears are a cheap, tasty dessert:
http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/blushing-pears-62480.aspx
Pear butter… It’s fairly simple and inexpensive. Do you have a water bath caner? There is a way to do it without canning it.. I can email you the recipe I use.. Just let me know..
I have made pear crisp before and it always seems to come out too watery. When it comes to a crisp, apple is much better (and I have found Empire apples to make the best apple crisp). You could make pear butter in the crockpot and freeze it if you don’t want to go through the canning process.
So funny you would bring up pears. We are studying the Romans and our book has a recipe in it for Patina De Piris which means Pear Soufle….We are planning to make this tomorrow so I can not vouch for how it tastes….But it is apparently a dish that Ancient Romand enjoyed eating..
2 lbs of pears (peeled and cored
6 eggs (beaten)
4 tbls of honey
a little bit of oil
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cumin
ground pepper to taste
Mash the pears together with pepper, cumin, honey and a bit of oil. Add the beaten eggs and put inot a casserole. Cook approximately 30 min. Serve with a little pepper on top.
This recipe came from a children’s book titled 100 Things You should know about Ancient Rome.
Again please note that I have not tried this recipe, but intend to tomorrow for a homeschool project. We are not big on peppering our food so I will likely leave that out.
Enjoy!
My family always loved pear preserves. You use a canner to make them. They were good on toast or biscuits.
hello-
Baked Pears with a glace’ sauce (raisins included) are pretty tasty.
Other than that- I can everything! You can hot water bath can pears in their own juice or very light syrup- process them for a few minutes and have tasty pears for later- possibly even to use in your pear crisp recipe?! 🙂
But like I said- I can everything, so this is always my response to these types of scenarios. 🙂