The only real problem I have with pears is that they bruise easily. They are juicy, have great flavor and go well with a huge variety of sweet and savory dishes. The bruising is a problem, though, because it really has an impact on the appearance of sliced pears and – at the risk of sounding a bit silly – a cheese plate just doesn’t look the same with a bunch of bruised pears on it. Fortunately, there is at least one great use for slightly bruised, but still ripe, pears: pear butter.
Pear butter is basically a very thick, smooth applesauce-type dish that is made with pears. It gets the name “butter” from how silky smooth the finished puree is. I was inspired to make a batch after smelling the wonderful scents of Apple Cider Butter being cooked at the Smuckers factory last week, as well as by the fact that I had a bunch of bruised Bosc pears sitting on my kitchen counter when I returned from the trip. You can use any variety of pears for this.
The butter is easy to make: just cook the pears down with a little spiced cider and puree it. I always put pear butter through a strainer at least once to make sure it is as smooth as possible. I don’t add any extra sugar, but if you prefer yours a little sweeter, feel free to add in 1/4 cup or so of brown sugar. You can taste the spices from the cider – cinnamon, cloves, etc. – in the finished butter, but I add in a little bit extra to keep the flavors strong. This will keep well in the fridge for about a week (maybe two, if stored in an airtight container) and can be used as a spread for English muffins, biscuits, toast, pancakes and even savory things like pork chops (very tasty!).
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Since I’m one of the featured bloggers for the 1,2,3 Puff Pastry contest this month, I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking about puff pastry and its applications. Fortunately, it’s pretty versatile. Vol-au-vents are cases made of puff pastry. They look like cylinders of pastry, with high, crisp sides and a light, buttery base. The top of the vol-au-vent remains open and can be filled with just about anything, although they’re primarily used for savory appetizers and main dishes. When they’re used for desserts, these same pastries are more likely to be called tarts or simply shells. I’ve stuck with that theme here and opted to call these caramel and pear filled vol-au-vents Caramel Pear Puff Pastry Tarts, instead.
These treats have a great combination of textures and flavors. A crispy, buttery shell is made very easily with puff pastry and the sweet, fruity filling is rich and satisfying. Eating one is a lot like having your own personal pie – only without the fuss of making a regular pie crust and waiting for the filling to bake. The filling is made on the stovetop, just a quick caramel sauce with lots of pears in it. I thickened the sauce with a little bit of cornstarch, since pears will release a lot of juice as they cook and you get a nice, thick consistency by helping it to thicken just a little bit. I used brown sugar and a hint of vanilla to accent the pears.
The cases are also easy to make. Start with a sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Cut out about a dozen 2 or 2 1/2 inch rounds with a circular cookie cutter. Cut a smaller circle out of the centers of half of those pieces. Stack the donut-shaped round on top of a solid piece, using a bit of water or lightly beaten egg to hold them together, and bake until golden. If you don’t want to make them yourself, it is possible to find this type of pastry shell ready-made in grocery stores, too. Both options are pretty quick to work with.
If all else fails, or if you simply have leftover filling, the pear-caramel mixture is great on top of vanilla ice cream, too.
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Pears are funny fruits. Much like bananas, when you have a group of them, they seem to ripen all at the same time. Unlike bananas, they also have a very short window in which they are perfectly ripe, firm but yielding to the touch. I frequently get pears as gifts, particularly this time of year and as I can’t seem to resist buying them in fairly large quantities when the price is right, I will occasionally be forced to eat many pears in a day or two. Poor me.
Once in a great while I will tire of eating pears plain and begin to hunt around for something to do with them. Pears and cheese, pears in soup, pears in my oatmeal, pear sauce. I don’t usually add pears to my baking because they don’t hold up as well as firmer fruits, like apples, but a recipe from Everyday Food caught my eye. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any granola for the topping and and wasn’t going out to get any. I ended up reducing the baking time and temperature, but making similar muffins.
Before I bit into one, I worried that I hadn’t put enough spice into these muffins. As I tasted and chewed, I completely forgot about the spices. These muffins managed to taste just like my pear clafoutis, less custardy by default, but strikingly similar. The pears were soft and gave a lot of moistness to the muffin. The relatively delicate flavor of pear was strong, which I loved. There simply aren’t enough pear-flavored things.
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I remember that my mom would make this on special occasions when I was little. I would always get so excited when I saw it resting in the kitchen. I couldn’t wait to eat some! I was fascinated by the rows of pears, totally mystified by how she got them to look so pretty. Now I know that the trick is a very sharp knife - a “trick” that is useful in just about every activity that involves knives.
I asked her for the recipe on an impluse; it was something I hadn’t thought about for years. I believe that it is originally from Jacques Pepin, published in a magazine called the Pleasures of Cooking, which had myriad food processor recipes. I think that it may have been published by Cuisinart, which explains this. Every edition had tons of recipes and useful advice on everything from assembling terrines to baking brioche. I quite like looking through the stack of old issues at my parent’s house.
The pear clafoutis tastes like a cross between a custard and a fruit-filled dutch baby pancake. It has a distinctly custardy flavor, but holds together almost like a cake because there is a fair amount of flour in the custard mixture. Overall, the dessert is actually quite light because the body of the custard is broken up by tender pieces of pear. I don’t think that the original recipe called for any additional flavorings, but I love to add a bit of vanilla and nutmeg into the custard mixture when I make it.
You could also make this for a fancy-ish brunch if you don’t want to save the recipe just for dessert. It can be served warm or cold.
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