Pear Butter

When we harvested our pears this year, the kids begged for me to make them into pear butter. In the past I have made pear sauce, similar to apple sauce. They like that ok, but what they really like is pear butter.

Pear butter is like apple butter in how it's prepared. I took and halved the pears and cooked them until soft. Sorry I don't pictures of that process. I didn't decide to do a post on this until later in the process.

Anyhow, next I ran them through my food mill. Pears make much more juice than apples do, and less pulp.

I had a huge basket of pears and a few apples to do.

Next I put a bowl full of the juice and pulp into the crock pot on high. After the stuff has come to a boil, I add sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon by taste.

I continue to let it boil on high for how ever many hours it takes to remove most of the moisture and caramelize the mixture.

The pure pear sauce took about 24 hours, the overnight hours were on the low setting. The apple/pear mixture was closer to 12 hours.

Once it is caramelized, a nice dark color, and thick I take a stick blender and blend it smooth. It looks like pudding when I'm done.

Then, I put it in jars.

The kids like it on toast or peanut butter and pear butter sandwiches.