If you’ve been following along for a while, you’ll remember my easy, low sugar recipe for Pear Butter. This caramel spice pear butter recipe is a bit different – sweet and caramelly and warm flavors for fall. This is a truly decadent alternative! Pour this on your ice cream with abandon! Use it lavishly over your pancakes! Or my favorite way, put it in a gorgeous ramekin on your charcuterie board. Great for warming up these early days of fall.
And yet, it is a pear butter, and you’d never know with how sweet and rich this is! Healthy pears as a stand-in for high calorie desert. Who knew. 🙂
You know by now that our orchard is mostly plum trees. Our neighbors on both sides each have pears, which is fantastic; biodiversity and garden gate diplomacy. I love when we can share and trade the bounty of our lives with each other.
A few tips for this recipe
A note about the pears – This recipe is not really suitable for asian pears, and turns out better if using a softer, sweeter pear. You could use Anjou, Bosc, or a Bartlett’s pear. However, if you are using asian pears, I’d go with the full 3 cups of sugar, due to the different level of sweetness and texture. I’d also recommend using the slow cooker to get the pears really soft and thick.
This recipe can be doubled, because there is no thickening! As written, the recipe should make 4-5 half pint jars or 2 pint jars. Doubled should make 9 half pint jars.
I note below that I do not peel the pears. However, if your pears aren’t fully ripe, you may wish to peel the pears, as the skin will be a little tougher and could take a bit longer to cook. Another pro tip – I’ve found that a melon baller works really well to core ripe pears.
If you really love the flavor of fall spice, go ahead and increase the cinnamon and ginger! The amount below is conservative, and I have as much as doubled the spice proportions.
Many fruit butter recipes have two cook stages, and I always used to prepare this recipe with a softening boil and then a secondary simmer. I’ve made this pear butter with both stages completely on the stove top, and I’ve also made this with the second cook in the slow cooker, and both ways work great. Recently, I’ve been using an immersion blender so that I can do the entire recipe in the slow cooker. The benefits are that you need to use only one utensil, and wash only one. I also like that you can just prepare all of the ingredients and then, aside from some stirring, just leave it to cook. However the slow cooker does take quite a bit longer, so if you are impatient, then maybe stove top is for you. I’ve included options below.
I’ve also made this base recipe and mixed up the flavors a bit – for example, I’ve tried salted caramel pear butter, which turned out nicely! If you try that, just make sure to use sea salt and go sparingly on the salt!
Ingredients for Caramel Spice Pear Butter
- 8 large, ripe pears. Bartlett’s are great for this recipe.
- 1/3 Cup water or apple juice (you’ll need a full cup if preparing on the stove top)
- 2 – 3 Cups sugar (depending upon the type of pears, ripeness and your taste)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Half teaspoon ground ginger
- Half teaspoon ground clove
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Wash and core, but do not peel the pears. Slice them and place them in a large pot or in a slow cooker.
- Add water (or apple juice), cover, and cook over low heat for 30 minutes, 40 minutes on high if using a crock pot (or up to 90 depending upon the ripeness of the pears) , until tender.
- Allow to cool slightly, then whirl the pears with an immersion blender right in your pot, or in a food processor in batches until the mixture is smooth. Return them to the pot or a slow cooker, set to low.
- In a wide sauce pan, melt half of the sugar, stirring often, until it caramelizes to a medium brown syrup. Pour this immediately into the pear pulp in the pot or slow cooker. The syrup will sizzle and get a little hard, but don’t worry – it quickly dissolves again as the fruit cooks.
- Stir in the remaining sugar and spices until well blended
- If using a pot, bring the mixture back up to a boil, reduce heat and cook uncovered for 45 minutes or so, until thickened, stirring frequently to reduce sticking.
- If using a slow cooker, set to a high setting for 3 or a low setting for about 6 hours. Keep the lid on a slant to allow steam to escape and the pear butter to thicken.
- Add the lemon juice just prior to removing the caramel pear butter from the heat.
- Process in the water bath canner for 15 minutes at sea level for half pint jars or 20 minutes for pint jars. Add 5 minutes for every 2000 feet elevation.
