A couple of weeks ago I was getting ready to place our bi-weekly Bountiful Baskets order when I noticed thay had a great deal on red pears. I almost didn't buy them because I wasn't sure what I would do with all of them, but when you are getting 40 pounds for nearly $.50 a pound you buy then and figure out what to do with them later.
Do you have any idea how many pears there are in a 40 pound box! A LOT!! Way more then I expected.
I picked up the pears just before Christmas so I had to just set them in the garage for a couple of weeks before I had time to even consider working with them. I am so thankful for the cool weather. The fruit has slightly ripened, but held up really well in the cold garage.
I ended up giving away as many as I could to family over the holidays to help spread the savings, but you can only give away so many.
Next I tried to get my kids as well as my daycare kiddos to eat as many as I could. I was shocked to see that the daycare kids were less them impressed with them. I have had several and they are some of the best fruit I have had in a long time.
So after eating as many as we could and giving away as many as I could talk people into taking I decided last night that I was going to have to figure out some other things to make so my great deal didn't end up sitting out in the garage rotting.
So I pulled a bunch out and started chopping.
First off I decided to take the easy route and just pull out my dehydrator and dry as many as I could. I sliced them as thinly as I could and laid them out on trays then transferred them to the dehydrator.
My plan is to finish this round and do another round later this week as I have time. I was able to get 4 full trays, although I had hoped to fill all of them. The pears were too thick to fit all of them in.
I set my dehydrator on 135 degrees and let them dry overnight. This is what I found this morning. They were still a bit pliable, but they looked finished.
I was able to fill several quart jars with the finished product. I was hoping these would last us a while, but once my children discovered them I knew I was going to need to make lots more. My 8 year old told me they were much better then apple chips and tasted like candy! Score 1 for mom!!
Since I was on a roll last night and already had a messy kitchen I decided to go ahead and tackle some homemade orange, cinnamon pear sauce.
I originally planned to can what I made, but was way too tired once I finished to mess with it. I ended up getting almost 4 quarts. I figured that with all the kids that come through my home I will have no trouble getting it used up before it goes bad.
The plan is to make some more for the hubby that is sugar free and can it since he requested it.
To start with I peeled and cored as many as I could get to fit in my vitamix.
And then added a splash of orange juice.
I filled my vitamix with orange juice and pears several times and pureed enough fruit until I had enough to fill a large pot.
I then added a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon and about a cup of raw sugar. After adding everything to the pot I let it simmer for about 20 minutes to let the liquid cook out a bit to thicken it up.
Here are some other ideas I have for using up the rest of the pears...
Pear Cobbler
Canned Pears
Pear Bread
Pear Butter or Jelly
I would love to hear from you if anyone has any other ideas for me to use these up.
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