Found a few pears that must have been purchased before the holidays. They were uber ripe and huddling together in the back of the fridge. What better to try than a fruit butter? I had many preserve cookbooks before my recent cookbook clean out but it was still easy to find a favorite go to.
With some guidelines and adapted from Preserving Today by Jeanne Lesem, I whipped this up this healthy sweet in just a quick bit. Use in to sweeten your Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, oatmeal or on a nibble of roasted meat.
gingery pear butter
- 2 lbs ripe pears…as in juice soft and ripe, peeled & coarsely chopped
- 1 tsp ascorbic acid
- 2 T agave (optional)
- 1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger / finely chopped crystallized ginger
Once peeled, cored, and cubed put the pears in a food processor with the ascorbic acid and ginger, puree until smooth. Transfer into a 2 quart saucepan, bring to boil, stirring constantly so that there is no burn on the bottom of the pan. Stir over medium high heat for 5 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the puree to a cheesecloth set in a strainer, over a bowl, so that the juice strains out. Let the puree strain for 15 minutes. Reserve the liquid for a smoothie or some other genius idea you come up with.
Return the strained puree to the saucepan and bring back to a boil. Be careful this thick puree may “spit” in your eye as it bubbles. I stirred constantly to prevent burn, spits, and spatters. Once it comes to a boil remove from heat and add the agave.
Immediately place pear butter into hot sterilized jars or a container and refrigerate or freeze (when cooled… do not put hot jars in freezer). Here is a link to safe jar sterilization. This recipe gave yield of 3, 4 oz jars.