This past weekend was everything I love about Fall.
Long walks with friends in the crisp autumn air. Lazy mornings enjoyed at the coffee shop nextdoor. Days snuggled in cozy sweaters and fluffy slippers. Turning leaves everywhere on fire with color. Catching up on episodes of my favorite fall shows, and then watching a moving book club pick come to life in the theater with friends. Taking full advantage of Daylight Savings Time to sleep in an extra hour. Sunday morning worship and words.
And of course, in my opinion, all good weekends must include some quality time in the kitchen.
This particular weekend was all about the pears for me. Ever since my trip in October to visit Harry & David, I have been craving pears nonstop. And then somehow buying them nonstop. :)
So to use up a few leftover ripe pears this weekend, I decided to make a quick small batch of stovetop pear butter. It’s basically like apple butter — but with pears!
This is no all-day, enormous batch, canning recipe though. Just an easy pear butter recipe that can be ready to go in 1 hour. It’s also naturally sweetened with honey, so you can feel good about generously layering a little extra onto your toast or muffin or wherever you may enjoy your pear butter.
I’ll add it to my list of things I love about fall. It’s seasonal, full of yummy spices, and oh-so-comforting and sweet.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Easy Pear Butter
Ingredients
- 3 lbs. ripe pears, peeled, cored and diced
- 3 Tbsp. honey
- 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- pinch of groud nutmeg
- pinch of ground cloves
Instructions
- Stir all ingredients together in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about 50 minutes, covering so that the lid is slightly open, and stirring occasionally. Keep an eye on the mixture so that the bottom does not burn. Once it has reduced slightly and thickened, remove from heat and transfer to a food processor. Pulse until smooth. (Or you can skip this step and keep the pear butter chunky.)
- Transfer to canning jars or a heat-proof container, seal, and refrigerate until ready to use. Keep for up to a week.
- *If your pear butter is too thin, feel free to run the mixture through a strainer to remove extra liquid. Alternately, let the mixture simmer on the stove longer to reduce more.
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
What, if any, ingredient alterations need to be made for water bath processing?
Thank you
Isn’t the sugar content necessary to keep down bacteria?
I added pears and spices but also added vanilla. It was to die for! Thanks for the easy recipe.
Shoooooot! I used THREE PEARS, not 3 lbs. of them.
I burned the bottom my first time because I neglected to stir it throughout. Tonight, I stirred and only used 2 tbsp instead of 3 (I’m in WW), but it didn’t yield 2 cups.
Easy and delicious
Made this as written. It was just ok. The pears were ripe but the pear butter was still lacking in sweetness. My husband thought I forgot the honey. Also didn’t notice the spices as much as I thought we would. The process, however, was super simple. We will play with the recipe and try again! Thank you for sharing.
This was my first time making any type of fruit butter and it was delicious! I made a double batch and canned it. Thanks!
This is SO good, and very easy.
Pretty bland. Ended up adding more brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice as hubby has an old fashioned sweet tooth