Last week some of my good friends brought me over a huge back of freshly-picked pears and apples. And as I was trying to plan how to put them to use over the next week, the idea of caramel pears came to mind. And then better — caramel pear cookies!
I’m always looking for an excuse to pick up a bag of those adorable little caramel bits at the grocery store, so was more than happy to give the recipe idea a try. Went with a cinnamon-y dough, and then just finely diced the pear so that there could be some nice little fruit chunks in there. And oh my goodness. They turned out A-MAZING. Seriously, I was expecting them to be tasty, but they were go-back-for-seconds-and-thirds-and-(ok-admit-it)-fourths crazy good. I actually ended up making two batches of them last weekend, so took them to share with friends and family and neighbors, and everyone gave them rave reviews.
Especially while it’s fresh pear season, I highly recommend giving these caramel pear cookies a try!
Caramel Pear Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 12 Tbsp. (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until just warm
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cup caramel bits
- 1 pear, finely diced (about 1 cup)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Use an electric mixer to cream together butter and sugars until well blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add in the dry ingredient mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Carefully stir in the caramel bits and diced pears until combined.
- Use a small cookie scoop or a spoon to form the dough into tablespoon-fulls. Place on a cookie sheet at least 2.5 inches apart, and then dot on top with a few additional caramel bits. Bake cookies until the outer edges are golden and begin to slightly harden, about 15 minutes. Remove and let the cookies cool on the baking sheets.
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
I made these yesterday.. great flavor. However, they were very thin.. I’ll try them again.. this time I’ll place the dough into the refrigerator overnight before baking them. I’m at 5000 ft, so I think I’ll bake them at 350 rather than 325. There is a lot of liquid in using nice ripe pears. I think that is why they thinned out. However, everyone raved over the flavor.. yum..
These are amazing. Made these last year for Christmas & people still talk about them. Making a big batch for a cookie exchange & hopefully I’ll have enough left over to share with the USPS, FedEx, UPS people in my neighborhood as a thank you. Pretty sure they have my address memorized-ha! Purchased the Heath bar toffee bits in the store & they’re perfect. Making this with large red pears this time so hopefully it’ll be even better. Thanks for a great recipe!
Can we use canned pears? Pear trees don’t grow in Guam where I live. ?
Some people might want to use lesser sugar if they don’t prefer very sweet cookies. I don’t mind the sweetness myself, but the caramel + pear + sugar was a tad too sweet for my husband.
I made these cookies and they were totally amazing! This is a keeper for sure!
I also made them substituting peanut butter chips for the caramel. Both fantastic
Thank you
Cookies were so delicious. Absolutely loved them. How many calories are in a cookie?
This is a great recipe and an unexpected one for visitors who never thought of using pear in cookies. This one is going into my “Favorite Recipe” cookbook.
I have 2 pear trees and needed a new recipe and this wad the best! So good. Thank you for sharing!
Just made these today. Tasted really great! I couldn’t find the caramel bits at the store so I substituted Ghiradelli vanilla caramel chips instead. Added more of a gentle flavor to them, and the chips had a great texture that my family couldn’t seem to get enough of. This was my first time baking with pears, and this recipe was fantastic!
I need help with picking out a good pear.
Hi! These look great and I can’t wait to make them. One question: did you peel the pear?