Salted Caramel Pear Butter

First off, what is it?  Does it have butter?  Is it good??  Fruit butter is like thick apple sauce. It’s a spreadable fruit paste that is so good!  There’s no butter in it, and it is delicious!

I learned a few lessons from this one.

One: Crockpots didn’t give me the texture I wanted.

Two: Time isn’t something a crockpot cares about. I cooked the butter on high for about 36 hours before I gave up and blended it, then used the stove top to cook the pear butter down. I think that had I used the stove top, there would be more of a caramel flavor too. Good lesson learned!   

Bottom line, would I make this again. Yes!  It is so good!!

Recipe:

• 9 lbs of ripe pears, peeled, cored and chopped (do this after you gather all of your ingredients, so you don’t end up with oxidized fruit.

• Booze. (it is me, afterall). I used 4 tablespoons of dark rum

• 1/4 apple juice (I used non-filtered)

• 6 tablespoons lemon juice

• 3 heaping and packed cups dark brown sugar

• 4 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

• 2 teaspoons nutmeg (fresh grated)

• 2 teaspoons ground ginger (dried)

• 2 teaspoons ground cloves

• 1 star anise

• 2 teaspoon sea salt

The spices I used were to taste and fall-oriented. If you like more, put in more!

I combined the sugar, spices and liquids together in the crockpot and turned it on high while I prepped the pears. Once they were all chopped, I threw it all together and mixed it up, making sure I scraped the bottom of the pot and that the pears were coated. I out on the lid and waited. And waited.

And waited.

Oh, how I waited. After 36 hours, I was tired of waiting, and blended it all up, and put it in a dutch oven and cooked it down until it had the consistency I wanted.  I sterilized 9 pint , filled with a ¼ in headspace, and did a water bath boil for 10 minutes.

It has a rich, caramel color, smells like fall and taste like happiness! It is so good on greek yogurt, but would go well with chicken, as a glaze.