Description
Simple unsweetened puree made from juicy ripe pears. Use it anywhere applesauce.
Ingredients
Scale
- 5 pounds pears, preferably organic since you won’t be peeling the pears
- Water, as needed
- 1 teaspoon chai spice blend (optional)
Instructions
- Prep your pears: Wash all the pears. Cut away any bad spots, but don’t bother peeling them. Cut them into large chunks (roughly eighths) and toss them into a stock pot.
- Steam: place about 1/3 cup water into the bottom of the stock pot. Bring the pot to the boil, and then reduce down to low. Stir the pears every 20 minutes or so until the pears are tender and the skins are starting to break down. How long it takes for the pears to cook will depend on how ripe they were to start with. Periodically check them for tenderness, adding a little more water if they seem like they’re sticking to your pot. The pears are ready to strain when you can easily stick a knife through them and they can be easily broken down with a potato masher. My batches of semi-ripe pears each took about 90 minutes to be ready.
- Set up a food mill over a large bowl. Fit it with the finest disc so that the pear seeds will be easily strained out.
- Scoop the pears into the food mill. Turn the crank letting the pear puree fall into the bowl. Scrape down the bottom side of the mill occasionally as it can get clogged. As you get down to the bottom of the batch of pears in the mill, be sure to turn the mill both clockwise and counterclockwise. This will help push the rest of the pears through the bottom more easily. Scrape down the sides of the mill frequently and move chunks of pears to the space under the blade. This will force more of the pears through the holes more quickly.
- Keep repeating milling the pears until you’ve pureed the whole batch and the puree is as dry as you can possibly get it. Toss the pear waste into the compost.
- After you’ve milled all the pears, check the consistency of your pearsauce. If it seems too thin, place the strained pear sauce back into the pot (clean it first) and cook it to evaporate any excess water.
- When the pear sauce is at the consistency that you like, add chai spice blend or apple pie spice to taste. About 1 teaspoon is good.
- Place pear sauce in sterilized jars or in Ziploc bags. You can process the pear sauce for canning if you like, following directions in a book like the Ball canning book, or simply freeze your pear sauce.
- Canned or frozen homemade pear sauce is best eaten within a year.
Notes
Double check your consistency: If your pears seem a little too loose after you’ve put them through the food mill, pour the sauce back into the pan to reduce a little. It’s up to you how thick you’d like it.
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 90 minutes
- Category: Baking Building Blocks
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 cup
- Calories: 93
- Sugar: 16
- Sodium: 2
- Fat: 0
- Saturated Fat: 0
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 25
- Fiber: 5
- Protein: 1