Description
Poached pears placed in a delicious quick bread flavored with sunny Meyer lemons.
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup sugar, divided
- 3 Bosc pears
- 2 meyer lemons, for zest and juice
- 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 1.5 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup nonfat plain Greek-style yogurt
- extra flour for dusting
Instructions
- To poach pears, bring water and 1/3 cup sugar to a boil in a medium pot.
- Add pears, zest from 1 lemon and vanilla bean (pod and seeds); reduce to medium heat, cover and poach for 5 minutes.
- Remove from water and let pears cool slightly.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- To make batter, in a stand mixer bowl (or with a hand mixer in a large bowl), beat together butter and remaining 2/3 cup sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes.)
- Beat in egg.
- In a separate medium bowl, mix together flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In small bowl, whisk together zest from the other Meyer lemon and juice from both of the lemons with the Greek yogurt.
- Then while the mixer is running, add some of the flour mixture to butter mix, then about one-third of the lemon Greek yogurt, and repeat until all the ingredients are mixed together to form a thick batter (but be careful not to over mix.)
- Coat 9×5-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
- Cut bottoms off of the cooled pears so they can stand up in pan and peek up about ½-inch over top.
- Brush pears with flour so batter will stick to pears and place pears in pan.
- Carefully spoon batter into pan; completely around and between the pears.
- Bake for about 55 minutes until bread tests clean with a toothpick and bread starts to turn golden brown on top. Cool slightly before slicing.