Pears Falling all Around

Not sure what happen…August has come and gone. School is back in full swing, and it is evident we neglected forgot to prune our pear tree last winter, before it had a chance to grow out of control. So now we have an obscene amount of pears. We’ve been eating them like crazy, but we still have loads. I may have to learn how to can them 🙂

In the meantime, I made pear sauce. It’s like applesauce, but with pears. It wasn’t that hard and tasted great! The task actually made us slow down and spend time together. Kids came home from school and sat in the kitchen chatting, while I peeled, cored, and diced all those pears. After homework we all enjoyed a second snack of warm pear sauce–yum!!

Here’s how I did mine. Peel, core, and dice pears. I used a bunch, not sure how many, I was just winging it. Maybe 4 pounds?

If you want to prevent the cut pears from browning, then drop them into an ascorbic acid solution as you cut them up. I did not, as you can plainly see.

I put them in a pot, added some water (not too much or it will be too watery -I added 1/2 cup and felt it was a bit too much). Spice it up! I added some nutmeg and cinnamon. Cook on a medium heat, low boil, for about 20-25 minutes.  This was our second favorite part (cause of course eating it is the first favorite)–the smell was awesome. Spice filled the air throughout our home. Ah, the sweet smell of fall 🙂

Next I used a pastry dough blender to cut the pear pieces into smaller pieces and have more of a mush texture. If you have a food processor, now may be the time to use it.  You may want to do it in parts, depending on the size of your food processor.

After mushing it for a while, we ate some warm. They all really liked it!  It needed a little sugar (just a smidge)–I think because I went a little nuts on the spices. The pears were very sweet to begin with, so I think less spices would have been better.  We put the left over sauce in containers and then into the fridge. After eating it both cold and warm, my kids all agree: pear sauce is the best after school snack, when spice fills the air and when the sauce is still warm. My husband wants his à la mode. Mmmm yeah, I could see that being really good.

We still have a large grocery bag filled with pears, ripening on the counter, and many more on the tree. I think we’ll be branching out to pear tarts or canning next. It also has put me in the mood to make spice cookies or cinnamon oatmeal cookies, Oh, maybe with raisins?

Enjoy your autumn!

~Erin