For as long as I can remember my grandpa has made an annual batch of apple butter, and when I was growing up, I believed it was pure magic. With some apples, sugar, and time you can create a dreamy spread that tastes like the best part of an apple pie.
The restaurant I’m working at added apple butter to the menu and on a day of cranking apples through an apple, peeler, corer slicer, I began to reminisce on my grandpa’s apple butter. My trip down memory lane took a sharp turn as I started thinking of all the possible fruits that could be buttered. The obvious answer is of course the apple’s botanical cousin, the pear. While it’s far from revolutionary, swapping out the apples for pears is a fun way to switch up the classic spread.
The peak season for pears is fall through winter but the exact season varies depending on the variety. Varieties like bartlett and bosc last through the winter months so since I developed this recipe in the winter, I stuck to these varieties during development. Research which variety is at its peak when you make this recipe for the best results.
Ingredients
- 4 lbs pears peeled, cored, cut into 1-inch chunks (I used Bartlett variety)
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar (240g)
- 2 cups water (470g)
- 2 Cinnamon sticks
- ½ tsp Ground Cardamom
- 1 2-inch piece ginger root, peeled
- 1 cup dark brown sugar (210g)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100g)
- 1/8 tsp kosher salt
Preparation
- In a large, heavy bottomed, oven safe pot with a lid, combine pears, apple cider vinegar, water, cinnamon sticks, ground cardamom, and ginger. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, cover the pot and reduce the temperature to medium-low. Allow to simmer for about 30 minutes or until all the pears are softened, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the mixture from the heat and allow it to cool for at least 10 minutes. Remove the cinnamon sticks and ginger root from the pot.
- Preheat oven to 300°F
- Blend the mixture until smooth using an immersion blender. If you don’t have an immersion blender, transfer the mixture into a blender, blend until smooth, and transfer back into the oven safe pot.
- Stir the dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, and salt into the mixture until combined.
- Place the pot, uncovered, into the middle rack of your preheated oven. Cook, stirring every 30 minutes, until the mixture has significantly thickened and darkened in color, about 4 ½ – 5 hours.
Notes
- If you don’t have a blender or peeling and coring the pears sounds too tedious, cut the unpeeled, uncored pears into 1-inch pieces. Continue with steps 1-3 as written. After cooling, press the pears through a food mill, or press through a fine mesh sieve with a rubber spatula if you don’t have a food mill. Discard the peels and seeds left in the food mill and continue with steps 5-6.
