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Easy Pear Butter in the Slow Cooker

Easy Pear Butter in the Slow Cooker

Make easy pear butter in the slow cooker and make your toast happy! Sweet pears and spices cook down together for spreadable fruit. Pear Butter is also delicious on oatmeal, yogurt or ice cream.

Easy Pear Butter in the Slow Cooker | @tspcurry

Here’s a happy thought.

At 3:00 pm, you could throw a couple chopped pears (don’t bother to peel them) in the slow cooker; and at 6:00 pm, you could be spreading warm spiced Pear Butter on your bread – maybe to go alongside some soup for dinner. And for those three hours, your house will smell absolutely wonderful.

This Pear Butter in the Slow Cooker is really just 3 simple ingredients:

  1. Pears – Any variety like Anjou, Bartlett, even Asian pears
  2. Sweetener – I’ve used honey or brown sugar before. You only use 3 tablespoons in the whole recipe.
  3. Lemon or lime juice
It's pear season! Don't peel the skins and make: Easy Pear Butter in the Slow Cooker via @TspCurry Click To Tweet

Add a few more ingredients and you could make these Pear Butter variations:

  • Ginger + lime juice + lime zest
  • Nutmeg + vanilla + bourbon
  • Cinnamon + cardamom + lemon zest

Easy Pear Butter Slow Cooker

Pears are in season right now through late winter. In fact, December is even National Pear Month. In terms of nutrition, pears are pretty amazing:

  • One medium pear provides 6 grams of fiber, which is about 24% of the Daily Value
  • Pears are a good source of vitamin C. 
  • Pears also naturally contain phytonutrients and other antioxidants. These are mainly found in and just under the pretty colored skins of the different pear varieties. So eat the peel – as in this recipe.
  •  A medium-sized pear contains only 100 calories.

OK, not look at your clock – in 3-4 hours you could be making your toast happy by spreading on this Easy Pear Butter…

LOVE PEARS? Try these recipes:

Mini Pear Fig Tarts – Use Mason jar lids to make portion sized fruit pies like these mini pear and fig tarts!

Chocolate Pear Roses – Impress your family with these easy to make fruit flowers using chocolate, pears, jam and puff pastry.

How to Make Sweet Ginger Pear Chips – Just 3 ingredients and about a half-hour in the oven and crispy, sweet pear chips will emerge to make your lunchboxes happy. Kids can make these!

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Easy Pear Butter in the Slow Cooker


  • Author: Serena Ball, MS, RD
  • Yield: 1 1/2 pints (3 cups) 1x

Description

Make your toast happy: make easy pear butter in the slow cooker! Sweet pears and spices cook down together for spreadable fruit. Pear Butter is also delicious on oatmeal, yogurt or ice cream.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 3 pounds pears – see note below
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar or honey
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger (optional) – see note below
  • 2 small pieces of lime or lemon peel – about 1-in square (optional)

Instructions

Spray slow cooker lightly with cooking spray.

Do not peel the pears (peels add flavor and nutrition!) Cut into 3/4-inch to 1-inch chunks. Add to slow cooker along with 1/2-cup water, lime juice, brown sugar, ginger and lime peel.

Turn slow cooker on to HIGH and cook for 3-4 hours, stirring once every hour. Cook until pears are soft (time to reach soft texture will depend on the ripeness of your pears).

When soft, remove pears from liquid with a slotted spoon and place in a blender (or a bowl and use a stick/immersion blender). Puree until smooth. If the texture is just a bit too runny, cook on the stove to evaporate some liquid. (I did not have to do this, and my pear butter was still spreadable.)

Notes

You can use a mix of pear varieties. I used Bartlett, Anjou and Asian pears.

You could also use these spices: 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon cardamom, or 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon.

Pear butter freezes beautifully in glass jars – leave 1-inch headspace for pear butter to expand when freezing. Or freeze in zip-top plastic bags.

This recipe can be canned, but if canning, use bottled lemon juice as it has a standard acidity. Fresh lemons vary in acidity. If canning, I would double the recipe, as 3 half-pints isn’t worth the work to can! Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Have you ever made fruit butter, like pear or apple butter? Did it make your toast happy? (:

Cindy Langley

Wednesday 26th of September 2018

Do you have any suggestions on the amounts for the nutmeg, vanilla, bourbon variation?

Serena Ball

Thursday 27th of September 2018

In the Notes section, I have a few suggestions for amounts of spices. Try 3/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg, or 1/2 teaspoon regular ground nutmeg. Use about 1 teaspoon of vanilla and about 1 tablespoon of bourbon. Stir in after pureeing the fruit. Thanks for visiting Cindy!

Christina

Tuesday 17th of October 2017

I've never heard of pear butter before, but now I want it all :)

Serena Ball

Thursday 19th of October 2017

It's so thick - you will love it. And naturally sweet, so very little sugar is needed!

Becca | Rabbit Food Runner

Monday 16th of October 2017

I've never thought of using the slow cooker to make a fruit spread. Cool idea!

Serena Ball

Thursday 19th of October 2017

I've made both apple and pear butter in the slow cooker. Hands free!

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