Tag Archives: pear

Pear Cake

3 Oct

The pears that came with Bountiful Baskets this week were very ripe and almost mushy.  So, I knew they would be best used in baking instead of eating them.  And honestly, my household doesn’t really eat fresh pears, so baking was probably going to be what I did with them anyway.  So, I found a recipe for Pear Cake, and with a couple of modifications, I got started.

Pear Cake

What you need:

  • 4 cups peeled, cored and chopped pears
  • 1 1/2 cups white sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
How to make it:
In a medium bowl, combine the pears and the sugar and let stand for one hour.  After one hour, it will look like this:
Preheat your oven to 325 F. Spray a 10 inch bundt pan or 2 9 in round pans with non-stick cooking spray  Stir the eggs and oil into the pear mixture.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. Slowly add to the pear mixture.  Stir well.  Pour batter into prepared pan(s).Bake at 325 F for 50-60 minutes if using a bundt pan, 30-35 minutes if using 2 9 in round pans, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from pan.
I have to say, I was very pleased with the results.  I was worried how it would be with larger pieces of pear, but the cake is so moist and the pear is so soft, I didn’t even notice the pear pieces, and neither did my kids or my friend’s kids that the second cake went to.  I do think a little bit of the pear taste gets lost with the spices, but it’s still really good.

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Dehydrating fruit

7 Sep

Each week in Bountiful Baskets, I get a nice assortment of fruit.  It mostly gets eaten outright, but lately it’s been tough for us to get through it before it goes bad.  Or, it’s just something we don’t particularly like a lot.  This week and last week, I got pears and nectarines that have sat, and the plums I got last week were starting to not look great anymore.  While trying to decide what to do with the pears, my friend D got a new fruit dehydrator to make raisins with the grapes we got.  I decided to ask to borrow it to at least dehydrate my pears and I picked it up yesterday.  Since you need the base and at least 4 trays, I decided I would try doing the nectarines, plums, and a couple bananas, plus we ended up putting a Granny Smith apple in too.

For the pears and the apple, I got out our peeler/corer/slicer.  Seriously, one of the best inventions for prepping pears and apples.  My girls love helping me use it.

Next, the pears, apples, and nectarines all need to be pre-treated to prevent them from browning.  There are a variety of options to do this, but I chose soaking them in lemon juice.  D had dehydrated her pears and dipped them in lemon juice, but felt like the lemon taste stayed with them, so I diluted my lemon juice with water, 50/50 ratio.  I left it in there about 5 minutes.

The plums I cut in half and removed the pits, the bananas I cut into 3/8″ slices.

I arranged it all on the trays, stacked the trays, plugged it in, and flipped the switch.

I let it run overnight, approximately 10 hours and here is what I woke up to.

It’s a browner than I wanted it to be, but it’s still sweet and full of flavor.  I think I may have left it in the dehydrator too long, probably should have started it later in the evening.  Also, I wonder if some of it was not in the lemon juice long enough or if my diluting the lemon juice had some effect.  Still a good experiment and thanks to D for letting me borrow the dehydrator!

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