Image is for illustrative purposes only.
This is a simple cooked pear filling made from fresh pears, a little caster sugar and warm spice. The pears break down as they cook and the liquid reduces away, leaving a thick, glossy, gently spiced filling with soft pieces of fruit still holding their shape.
It is a useful filling to have ready for tarts, strudels, layered cakes and baton pastries, or spooned between sponge layers with cream. Because the sugar is kept low, the flavour stays fresh and fruity rather than jammy, and the cinnamon and clove give it a warm, autumn character.
Ingredients
The weights in the recipe table below will yield the following 'weight per unit' and 'number of units'. If you would like to change the recipe to cater to a different 'weight per unit' and/or 'number of units',
you can use the Recipe Calculator Tool below the ingredients table.
Note: The Recipe Calculator Tool is available to subscribers.
Weight Per Unit: 1121
Number of Units: 2
Unit Size: 20 cm tart or cake layer
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WEIGHT
(grams)
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ALTERNATIVE METRIC
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INGREDIENT
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IMAGE
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CONDITION
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A
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2000 |
10 Fresh Pears
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Fresh Pear
Pears are a soft, sweet orchard fruit that break down easily when cooked. Firm, slightly under-ripe pears such as Beurre Bosc or Packham hold their shape best in a filling, while very ripe ones cook down to a purée.
firm, ripe
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peeled, cored and diced |
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B
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200 |
7 ounces
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Sugar
Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide. (In the body, sucrose hydrolyses into fructose and glucose.) Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides. Chemically-different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as artificial sweeteners.
caster
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C
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10 |
0.4 ounce
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Cinnamon
Cinnamon (/ˈsɪnəmən/ sin-ə-mən) is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods. While Cinnamomum verum is sometimes considered to be "true cinnamon", most cinnamon in international commerce is derived from related species, which are also referred to as "cassia" to distinguish them from "true cinnamon".
ground
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D
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2 |
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Cloves
Cloves are the dried flower buds of a tropical evergreen tree, sold whole or ground. The ground form is intensely aromatic and slightly numbing, so it is always used in small amounts.
ground
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E
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30 |
1 fluid ounce
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Cooking Oil
Cooking oil is plant, animal, or synthetic fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking. It is also used in food preparation and flavouring not involving heat, such as salad dressings and bread dips, and in this sense might be more accurately termed edible oil. Cooking oil is typically a liquid at room temperature, although some oils that contain saturated fat, such as coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil are solid. There is a wide variety of cooking oils from plant sources such as olive oil, palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil (rapeseed oil), corn oil, peanut oil and other vegetable oils, as well as animal-based oils like butter and lard. Oil can be flavoured with aromatic foodstuffs such as herbs, chillies or garlic.
neutral flavoured
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2242
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Recipe Calculator Tool
Using this tool, you can alter this recipe for your own requirements. Use the two fields below to generate new weights for the ingredients above.
STEP 1. Enter your Custom Weight Per Unit
The 'Custom Weight Per Unit' is already loaded with the weight per unit for this recipe but can be changed if required. If all you wish to do is change the number of units (or servings), just leave the current weight per unit.
STEP 2. Enter your Custom Number of Units
This is the number of units (or servings) you want this recipe to yield.
STEP 3. Click Calculate
The new weights for your adjusted recipe will be displayed in the table above.
Method
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STEP
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ACTION
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DETAIL
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CONDITION
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1 |
Prepare |
Peel, quarter and core A (fresh pears), then cut the flesh into even dice of about 1 cm. |
Pieces all the same size so they cook evenly |
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2 |
Heat |
Warm E (cooking oil) in a wide, heavy saucepan over medium heat. |
Oil just shimmering, not smoking |
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3 |
Cook |
Add the diced pear and cook, stirring now and then, until the fruit softens and starts to release its juice. |
Pear turning translucent at the edges |
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4 |
Sweeten |
Stir in B, C and D (caster sugar, cinnamon and ground cloves) and keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved. |
No grains of sugar left on the base of the pan |
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5 |
Reduce |
Lower the heat and simmer uncovered, stirring often so it does not catch, until the liquid has cooked away and the mixture is thick. The batch will lose about half its weight. |
A spoon drawn through the pan leaves a clear track that closes only slowly |
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6 |
Cool |
Take the pan off the heat and spread the filling in a shallow tray to cool quickly. |
Completely cold and thick before it goes into any pastry or cake |
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7 |
Store |
Pack the cold filling into clean containers or jars, cover and refrigerate. |
Keeps about a week in the fridge; freeze in portions for longer |
Important Notes
The spreadsheet records a processing yield of about half: the raw mixture loses roughly 50 per cent of its weight as the pear juice cooks away. At this size you start with about 2.2 kg of raw fruit and sugar and finish with a little over 1 kg of thick filling, enough for two 20 cm tarts or to layer two round cakes. Choose firm, ripe pears — very soft fruit will collapse into purée. If your pears are unusually juicy, keep cooking until the mixture mounds on the spoon, as a wet filling will soak into pastry. Cool it completely before using, and keep it covered in the fridge for up to a week or frozen in portions.
Tools & Arrangements
Vegetable peeler, paring knife, chopping board, wide heavy-based saucepan, wooden spoon, shallow tray for cooling, storage containers or jars, kitchen scales
