Pear Bread!

We were lucky enough to get a box of pears for a Christmas gift from Virginia’s Aunt Liz in San Diego… so, since we had pears in the house, what better time would there be to make some pear bread? So, after looking around on the magical interweb, I came across a wonderful recipe at this website (Recipe Here: http://www.bakeorbreak.com/recipes/2008/06/01/pear-bread/)  So… I figured I’d give it a shot…

Look at the above link for the recipe and procedure… I’ll just provide some pictures and commentary…

Ok… already, I have to give a bit of disclosure… I didn’t exactly follow the procedure… I kinda just tossed everything into the mixer and hit the go button.

So first, all of the dry stuff.. 3 Cups flour.. 1 cup pecans… Baking Soda and Baking powder…  This is the point where you look a bit further down the recipe’s instructions and realize that you probably should have had the butter out getting soft… but.. there’s an easy fix here… at least in my house.

Our oven, like many others vents through the rear left burner… there’s basically a hole that goes directly from the center of the burner down into the oven.. (don’t ask why.. it seems to me like you’d want to keep the heat inside of the oven…)

Anyhow.. a glass bowl.. some chopped up butter.. and bada-bing-bada-bang .. it’s softened in a jiffy.

Next.. it’s time to add the wet ingredients…

3 eggs…

2 TSP of Vanilla…. My grandmother actually got us a 3 pack of vanillas for Christmas… Madagascar, Mexican, and Tahitian…. so… This recipe got 2 TSP of Madagascar Vanilla. … If we make some whipped cream for the top.. it’ll get the Tahitian Vanilla…

Virginia took care of mashing up the 2 cups of pears after peeling them…

So… everything in the mixer… start it off slow…. and get everything all mixed up.

Then… the mix goes into your greased and floured pans… either a tube pan, or 2 9x5 loaf pans… Our tube pan died a long time ago due to a fight with an Angelfood cake… but.. anyhow… into 2 pans for us..

They go into the oven @ 350 for about an hour before you check them… you check them like any other baked good… by stabbing it with a toothpick and making sure the toothpick comes out clean…

The one on the left… no good… it had to cook longer.. the one on the right.. pulled out clean. Interestingly enough… and somewhat expected… the one in the metal loaf pan cooked faster than the one in the Pyrex loaf pan… the one in the glass pan took about 20 minutes longer….  But.. once the toothpick comes out clean, let them cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then flip them out of their respective pans…

 

After a few more minutes of cooling.. you can slice into it…

 

 

 

 

This stuff if pretty dang tasty… kinda like a banana bread or a zucchini bread… I’m sure VA will toss some whipped cream on it before too long and call it a dessert…

So begins a new year on the cooking blog… expect to see a bit more baking this year… I’m looking to get more into making some breads… we’ve actually been making our own bread since Virginia’s parents gave us a bread machine… I don’t think we’ve purchased a loaf of bread for 6 months or so… but.. while that bread is awesome.. it’s not exactly blog material… “Add this, this, this and this to the machine and hit start” doesn’t make for an interesting blog post… so… in addition to using the bread machine for easy, quick loaves, I’ll be using the mixer to make some rolls, artisan breads, and all sorts of other awesomeness…