Spiced Pear Loaves
We’ve been nibbling on these pear loaves for the past two days-my motivation, as usual, were two beautiful pears I forgot about in the bottom of the fridge that I couldn’t bear to let go without fulfilling their reason for being. Or one reason, at least. You know how I hate to waste stuff.
Overripe pears turn almost to sauce when you grate them on the coarse side of a box grater. They’re great for muffins and cakes, and pancakes and oatmeal, and add sweetness and fibre, too. I sound like my Dad. These would be festive with a handful or two of fresh (or frozen) cranberries.
Tonight, W and I will be baking 200+ cookies for the Christmas concerts at Ramsay school tomorrow. (I’m thinking molasses-ginger crinkles, Russian tea cakes, and red and white striped candy cane cookies I’ve never made before.) Eggs on toast and French onion soup for dinner.
Spiced Pear Loaves
To make muffins, bake the batter in paper-lined muffin tins for 25-30 minutes.
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour, or half all-purpose, half whole wheat
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large ripe pears, coarsely grated
1 cup buttermilk
a handful of raisins or dried cranberries (optional)Preheat the oven to 350?F. In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes, until pale yellow and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt. Add about a third to the butter mixture and beat on low speed just until blended. Add half the grated pears and half the buttermilk, then another third of the flour, the rest of the pears and buttermilk and the rest of the flour, stirring or beating on low speed just until combined.
Gently stir in the raisins or cranberries and scrape the batter into two 8-x 4-inch loaf pans that have been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until golden and tops are springy to the touch. Cool completely in their pans on a wire rack. Makes 2 loaves.
December 14 2010 05:23 pm | bread and breakfast
Erin on 15 Dec 2010 at 7:25 am #
looks delish! I love that you will go to the trouble to make a loaf rather than throw out a pear:) I’d do the same. Your recipe for sour cream snickerdoodles (fron One Smart Cookie) is always my favourite way to use up the ever present container of sour cream in my fridge:)
Helene on 15 Dec 2010 at 12:46 pm #
200 cookies, I am amaze. How did it turn out? Your loaf looks yummy.
Michelle BB on 17 Dec 2010 at 3:24 pm #
I love pear bread, it’s one of my favourite quick breads, although I can’t seem to convince my family and friends to make it! For some reason I never thought of adding dried cranberries, I’m sure it would be a great variation and I’ll be trying it next time I have a couple extra pears around. Thanks!
Carol A. on 11 Sep 2011 at 10:29 pm #
Hi Julie, Just wanted to let you know I found your recipe in my search for the pear loaves I most wanted to make. I made yours and I’m glad I did, so delicious! I was given a lot of wonderful Bartlett pears from a friend’s orchard and I’ll be making several of these loaves to freeze.
The only “tweaks” I made were to use 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup olive oil, and went a little heavy on the spices and vanilla (because I always do
) I made my own buttermilk by adding a teaspoon or so of lemon to whole milk, and I omitted the craisins.
Thank you so much, I’m so glad I found you! I’ll check out the rest of your site, I’m sure there are more goodies I’d like to try.