My plans to made this apple-pear butter kept getting foiled by my appetite for pears. Every time I had a few ripe pears in the house, I ate them. I love pears. I finally just went over to Sprouts, where they had a bunch of inexpensive, overripe Comice pears (my favorite). The fact that they were overripe kept me from putting them in my mouth rather than into the pot.
The butter is a little labor intensive because the apples and pears are cooked with the skins, seeds and core for flavor, which means the cooked fruit needs to be passed through a food mill before cooking it down even more. Next time, I’ll cut the apple pieces a little smaller. Larry was a great assistant and did the food mill work for me.
The result is outstanding. It’s not overly sweet and the flavor from the pears and maple makes it interesting. Fresh bread in the house means it’s disappearing fast. I shared some with the neighbors, and I think this would make a really nice hostess gift.
- Maple Apple-Pear Butter (Fine Cooking #101, October/November 2009, p. 20)
What can I use if I don’t have a food mill….I don’t have the space to keep one in my tiny kitchen. Recommendations?
If you don’t have a food mill, I’d say de-stem and core the fruit first. Leave the skins on and when it’s through the first cooking, cool it down and remove as many skins as possible by hand. Then just pass the remaining fruit through a standard strainer using the back of a spoon. You may want to try a half-batch first.
My food mill isn’t as nice as this one, but it’s similar: Oxo 1071478 Good Grips Food Mill.
Love the combination of pears and apples in this. Sounds like a versatile ingredient for lots of baked goods. (or just liberally slathered on top of said baked goods.)
This looks marvelous! I’ve been crazy about apple butter lately, ever since I was in Quebec late last year, where there are so many producers of apple butter. The stuff is downright addicting.