guest post: the family ware!

Ooops.
I completely missed this guest post by my lovely friend Courtney!  
Her family blog is amazing.
I literally aspire to be her.
I know that's a little creepy (sorry, Courtney!) but she does everything handmade and homemade for her two darling kiddos.
This pear sauce looks delicious and I can't wait to try it!

Homemade Pear (or Apple) Sauce

I love to hear ooos and aaaahs from friends and family when I get the chance to feed 'em.  There are, of course, those meals where everyone politely eats what's served, and I make a note that that experimental recipe was not a repeater.  However, when there's a success, it seems more often than not that it's a simple, homey, comforting dish.  Funny, isn't it?

Humble, ordinary, down-right delicious simplicity seems to be my recipe for success, and when it comes to all those apples and pears Fall bring, you can't go wrong with homemade pearsauce (or applesauce).

Not only is this homey, comforting dish easy to make, it’s also healthful, flavorful, versatile, and an awesome excuse to go ahead and indulge in that 38-pound box of local organic pears (or apples) from the co-op (ahem). Once you try it homemade, you’ll never go back… and what better fall afternoon project could there be if you have a kiddo or two dying to help out in the kitchen?

(And just wait and see what you can do with the sauce once you make it!)

Pear Sauce

Note: this recipe is a kind of use-what-you-have type of recipe- you can calculate the ratios of ingredients based on what you have, or you can just wing it, as it is very forgiving. If you are planning on canning your sauce, you can roughly gauge what you’ll need knowing that approximately 2 ½ pounds of apples or pears will yield 1 quart of sauce. For this recipe I’m calling a ‘batch’ 2 quarts.

5 pounds Bartlett pears (if making applesauce instead, vary the types of apples, and avoid the tart varieties like Granny Smith)

½ cup 100% white grape juice

Half pears and scoop out core using a melon baller. Trim stem ends and quarter the halves (so the pear is now in 8 pieces). There is no need to peel. Toss chunks into a large heavy-bottomed pot and add grape juice.

Cover and simmer on a medium-low heat, stirring regularly, for approximately an hour, or until larger chunks of fruit mash easily with the back of a spoon.

Cool to room temperature and either mash through a fine-mesh colander with a potato masher, or use a food mill like the one pictured (I got mine on amazon.com). You could even pulse in a food processor if you don’t mind the coarser texture of the peel mixed into the sauce.

At this point, you could serve it, still warm, or you could return sauce to pot and simmer on very low heat to reduce and thicken. If you would like to spice it up a bit, add 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp powdered ginger, and a pinch of cloves as it simmers (your house will smell awesome). In a jar with a tightly fitted lid, sauce will keep for up to a month in the fridge.

But wait, there’s more. You could take your pear (or apple, of course) sauce- immediately after mashing, before adding spices- and turn it into pear butter! Have a crock pot? Try this:

Double up on the pear sauce recipe above, and after mashing or running through a food mill, pour into a crock pot. To the plain, thin sauce (if your sauce is actually quite thick at this stage, add some more white grape juice):

1 tsp ground nutmeg

2 tsp powdered ginger

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp allspice

The zest of an orange

1 cup orange juice (or ~3 TBS frozen orange juice concentrate)

2 cups brown sugar

Mix all ingredients together in a crock pot, put the lid on slightly ajar (to let steam escape so butter will thicken), and cook on low for 8-12 hours or overnight. Butter is at the correct thickness if a spoonful dolloped onto a plate holds together without juice leaking from the edges.

Try one- or both- of these recipes, and I promise: Your house will smell amazing, your kiddos, friends, and/or family will thank you, and you will be hearing oos and aaahs the whole season long.

Note: if you are in to canning and would like to ‘put up’ the pear/applesauce or butter, you’ll need to fill ‘sauce jars to ¼” headspace and process for 15 mins in boiling water bath for pints, and 20 mins for quarts. For the butter, fill to ¼” headspace and process in boiling water bath for 5 mins if using pint jars and 10 mins for quart jars.