Spiced Caramel Pear Cookie Cups

A friend of mine recently brought me some really interesting preserves. While most folks would likely just have the preserves with their morning toast, my first thought was “what type of cookies can I make?” Since this spiced caramel pear preserves were something special, I wanted that to be the highlight of the cookie. Cookie cups were the perfect solution, just needed to find the right base.

This cookie base was originally part of a lemon curd-based cookie cup. The jar of preserves I had was small and I thought that it would make about 24 cookies. I knew I had other preserves on hand if needed. Well, this recipe made nearly 4 dozen cookies, and I used lots of different preserves! The cookies were perfect and will likely be the base for many cookies to come.

The base is so simple, make the dough, shape into balls, place in mini muffin cups, and bake. You don’t even need to make an indentation until after the cookies come out of the oven, which is very convenient. I let them cool a bit in the pan and then they came out, no problem at all! I did not need to worry about them being fussy. The spiced caramel pear preserves were the icing on the cake, sweet with interesting notes of pear, spices, and a subtle caramel flavor.

Spiced Caramel Pear Cookie Cups
1 cup butter, room temperature
1¼ cups sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2¾ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
Spiced Caramel Pear Preserves

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray a mini muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and sugar and beat on medium until light. Add the egg and vanilla and mix again to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, stirring until the dough comes together.

Shape the dough into 1” balls and place in the prepared mini muffin tin.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden. Once the cookies come out of the oven, make an indentation in each cookie with a tart tamper or similar tool. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and then remove the cookie cups from the mini muffin pan.

Once the cookie cups are cool, fill each with a small amount of caramel pear jam. 

Cookie recipe from Six Sisters’ Stuff

Pear Hazelnut Butter Bars

When I originally came across this recipe, it looked a lot different. I actually have made the salted caramel butter bars that are the origin of the recipe I found, and the variation I found used Nutella. I pinned this, but I figured that I would make a change somehow. My first thought was to try a type of fancy peanut butter, something like a cinnamon peanut butter or something. I then realized that this recipe would also work with jam or preserves, so I planned to make it this month with all my other jam recipes.

I went to the store to look at the offerings, and in the end my husband found the preserves that I ended up using. We were by the cheese counter and found a jar of pear hazelnut fruit pâté. I’m not really sure how they define their concoction, but it’s most similar to thick preserves. I knew it would work, and I decided that adding some chopped hazelnuts to the top would be wonderful. I also halved the original recipe which used an entire pound of butter! (This is not health food!)

This dough is simple and comes together quickly. I think it took less time to make the dough than it took to heat the oven. You use about a third for the crust and 2/3 for the topping, but even if you divide the dough in halves, it will work. Don’t stress too much about it. I do wish that I had a little more pear hazelnut preserves, but I had just enough. The only challenge with these bars is that they don’t really brown, so it is hard to tell when they are baked through. I waited until the hazelnuts looked toasted and called it good. These bars are so good with the fruit and hazelnuts. I wouldn’t say that the pear is a distinct flavor, but the fruity flavor in these bars is wonderful.

Pear Hazelnut Butter Bars
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
½ cup Pear Hazelnut preserves (or other)
¼ cup chopped hazelnuts

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and powdered sugar on medium until light. Stir in the vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, stirring just until the dough comes together. Wrap 2/3 of the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate while you bake the base of the bars. Press the remaining 1/3 of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan.

Bake for about 14 minutes, until the crust is set. The base will not be browned. Allow the crust to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before proceeding. Leave the oven on.

Spread the pear hazelnut preserves onto the partially baked and cooled base. Remove the remaining dough from the refrigerator and crumble the dough on top of the preserves. Top the crumbled dough with the chopped hazelnuts.

Bake for an additional 25-35 minutes, until the hazelnuts are golden, and the topping is set. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.

Recipe inspired by Cookies and Cups

Pear Butter Cookies

  

I’m all in for fall baking now, but since I am still stuck at home all I am thinking about is Christmas. I need to stop thinking about that and focus on all the wonderful things there are to bake for this season. It’s proving to be challenging finding recipes that are small batch. I guess the assumption is that for fall and winter, you bake lots of things and give it to lots of different people. That would be nice but seeing lots of people isn’t happening right now.

This is the perfect fall recipe, using apple butter and only making 18 or so cookies. I had pear butter in the refrigerator, but it was a small jar, and I couldn’t figure out how I could use that in a recipe. Since this recipe called for such a small amount of pear/apple butter, this recipe was just right. Pear and apple butter are very similar, but if you don’t have either of those on hand, you could try another type of preserves. I think anything that is relatively smooth would work.

Another reason I like these cookies so much is they are very similar to snickerdoodles, which are my favorite cookie. The similarities are many, such as the use of cream of tartar and rolling the dough in cinnamon sugar. For a while there, it seems like everything was called a snickerdoodle that used cinnamon sugar, but these are truly very similar. Flavor wise, these cookies have a subtle sweetness, and aren’t quite as tangy as traditional snickerdoodles. The pear butter is subdued but makes for a wonderful cookie.

Pear Butter Cookies
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup pear/apple butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Cinnamon sugar

In a larger mixer bowl, beat the butter, pear butter, and sugar on medium until combined. Add the egg and vanilla and mix to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the cinnamon, flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls. Roll the balls of dough into the cinnamon sugar mixture, and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 12-13 minutes, until set and beginning to brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Dixie Crystals

Cranberry Pear Cookie Cups

I love this sort of cookie cup: usually a simple dough, filled with some sort of topping. Bake anything in a mini muffin cup and it will look fantastic. They are quite easy, as you make the cookies, bake them, and then you are done. I knew that I would be a little short of time to bake this week, as I had late meetings, so these were just perfect. (I can make those other cookies I had been planning next week!)

This cookie was slightly more complex, mainly because the cookie dough was more involved. Typically, the cookie dough is butter, flour, sugar, and cream cheese. This dough also added oats and ginger, and then you had to refrigerate the dough. That worked for me as the dough took 10 minutes to put together and then I put it in the refrigerator while we ate dinner.

These cookies are easy, but it can be fussy to spread the dough into the muffin cups. They are quite forgiving, so don’t worry about trying to make the perfect. The filling is messy, with the grated pear, but otherwise not a problem. I used pecans as that was what I had on hand. They come out of the pan easily, which is always true of this type of cookie. The pear has a great flavor, and one that is unusual in a cookie!

Cranberry Pear Cookie Cups

½ cup butter, room temperature

3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

2 tablespoons sugar

¾ cup flour

¼ cup oats

¼ teaspoon ginger

½ cup grated fresh pear

1 egg

2 tablespoons dried cranberries, chopped

1 tablespoon crystallized ginger, chopped

1 tablespoon nuts, chopped

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Mix on medium until smooth. Add the flour, oats, and ginger and mix on low until the dough forms. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 24 mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a small bowl, combine the pear, egg, cranberries, crystallized ginger, and nuts. Divide the dough into 24 pieces. Press each piece onto the bottom and up the sides of the mini muffin pans. Spoon a small amount of filing into each cookie.

Bake for 23-25 minutes, until light brown. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pan and placing on a wire rack.

Recipe from Taste of Home Fall Baking

Spiced Pear and Pistachio Bread with Maple Cream Cheese Drizzle

It’s starting to be more fall-like weather in the Seattle area, although we have a couple of cool, cloudy days and then its 85 degrees for a couple of days. At least it gets cooler at night, which means that the house doesn’t get so warm. I’ve been seeing so many pumpkin and Halloween recipes, but I’m not quite ready for that yet. I do have a couple of ginger and fall cookie recipes on the horizon, but not quite yet. This bread, combining pear and spices, is a first step towards the fall baking direction.

I have pistachios that I would like to use before they become stale, so I did some searching for pistachio loaf recipes. I was looking to find a pistachio and chocolate chunk loaf, but I didn’t really find that. I suppose that wouldn’t be too hard to create based on other recipes! I did find this recipe for pear and pistachio bread, which sounded great.

This, like most quick breads, was very easy to put together. I used to have trouble with loaves baking properly, but I have a heavy gauge loaf pan now and that seems to help a lot. I also test the loaf with a thin knife, which really tests the center of the loaf for doneness. My only challenge was the cream cheese drizzle. The original recipe didn’t call for any powdered sugar, and maybe that can work but it didn’t in my case. I ended up whisking in about a cup and a half of powdered sugar. I had LOTS of drizzle, but that’s not really a bad thing. I liked this bread quite a bit, although I think I would add even more spices.

Spiced Pear and Pistachio Bread with Maple Cream Cheese Drizzle

2 cups flour

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

1 egg

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup milk

¼ cup heavy cream

2 medium pears, peeled, cored and diced    

⅓ cup pistachios, chopped

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

¼ cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 5” loaf pan with foil, allowing the foil to overhang the sides of the pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, egg, sugar, and vanilla on medium until smooth.  Add half of the flour mixture and mix on low. Add the milk and heavy cream, continuing to beat on low. Add the remaining flour mixture and mix on low until the flour is incorporated into the batter. The batter will not be completely smooth. Fold in the pears and pistachios with a spatula. Spoon into the prepared pan.  

Bake for 55-60 minutes, until a thin knife inserted into the loaf comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then remove the loaf from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

Once the loaf has cooled, make the drizzle. In a medium bowl combine the cream cheese, maple syrup, powdered sugar, and butter and whisk until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled loaf. Refrigerate the loaf for 30 minutes to set the drizzle.

Recipe from The Wanderlust Kitchen

Brandied Pear Cake with White Chocolate

 Our normal routine on Sundays is to meet up with my husband’s sister and her husband for brunch. They’ve recently moved to the Seattle area and we love having them live so close to us! We typically alternate choosing restaurants to visit, and one weekend we ventured over to Ballard, a fun neighborhood in northwest Seattle. They are visiting the different neighborhoods as a way to learn about the city and had found this restaurant during their visit.

The restaurant we went to was great, but it was also the day of the Ballard Farmer’s Market and we stepped outside the restaurant and we were in the busy market. I like Farmer’s Markets, but I need to plan when I go. If I just buy random produce, I don’t always use it. I had spied this recipe in my newest cookbook, The Boozy Baker. Yes, it’s a cookbook of baking using alcohol and it’s wonderful! I though this brandied pear cake would be great so I picked up the pears I needed and planned to make this cake.

I let the pears soften a bit as they were a little unripe when I purchased them. They were nice and ripe when I made the cake and they were fantastic. You soak them in brandy for a bit, which gives them great flavor. The cake has a few steps, browning the butter, etc. but not too bad. This cake looks deceptively simple, but it’s just wonderful. The pears were just perfect, and the brandy flavor is there but isn’t too powerful. I wasn’t sure about the white chocolate chips, but they add a nice bit of sweetness. If you have pears that you want to use, this is the perfect cake for you.

Brandied Pear Cake with White Chocolate

2 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup brandy

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 ripe pears, peeled and cut in ½” chunks

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter, room temperature

3 eggs

2/3 cup sugar

½ cup white chocolate chips

Make the brandied pears: in a medium bowl combine the sugar, brandy, lemon juice and pears. Stir to coat the pears in the brandy and allow to sit for 20 minutes. Strain the pears, reserving 1 tablespoon of the brandy mixture for the cake batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9” springform pan. (I used a 9-1/2” pan)

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Continue cooking, 8-10 minutes, until the butter is browned and has a nutty fragrance. Be careful not to burn the butter.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the eggs for 5 minutes on high, until thick and light yellow in color. Add the sugar and beat for 2 minutes. Stir in the reserved 1 tablespoon of the brandy mixture.

With the mixer running on low, add the flour mixture alternatively with the butter, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Top with the brandied pears and white chocolate chips.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the cake is lightly browned. Cool in the pan and remove to a serving plate when completely cooled.

Recipe from The Boozy Baker by Lucy Baker

Pearsauce Coffee Cake

I’m still trying to use up some pears that I had at home, and I came across this coffee cake and had an idea. I have used mincemeat instead of applesauce in another coffee cake recipe, so I thought about making pearsauce with the pears I had on hand. I’d never made apple or pearsauce before, but I knew it was fairly simple. I searched and found this recipe where you just cooked pears with a cinnamon stick. It only took about 15 minutes and it made the house smell fantastic.

Once you’ve made the sauce (and of course you could use store-bought sauce), it takes no time to make. Making this on an evening when I was trying to get so many other things accomplished, I was trying to be as quick as possible. It takes about 10 minutes for my oven to get to temperature, and I was spreading the batter in the pan just when my oven beeped to let me know it was at temperature. Perfect!

You could top this with icing if you want to make it a little fancier, but I just went with a powdered sugar topping. I took it to work so I hadn’t tasted it, but I did sneak a couple of crumbs from when I took it out of the oven and they were very tasty. This isn’t a large cake, but that’s ok. I think this would be nice served for breakfast, maybe Thanksgiving morning?

Pearsauce Coffee Cake

3 pears

1 cinnamon stick

¼ cup butter, softened

½ cup sugar

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

Powdered sugar

Make the pearsauce: peel, core and dice the pears. Place in a medium saucepan with the cinnamon stick. Add enough water to cover the pears. Cook on medium until the pears are soft. Drain the extra water and mash with a potato masher. Measure 1 cup (reserve any remaining sauce for another use). Refrigerate the sauce until cool.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with waxed paper.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture a bit at a time, mixing just until combined. Stir in the 1 cup pearsauce.

       

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth the top. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 20 minutes in the pan. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack, or serve warm. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Recipe from Amazing Moms

Pearsauce recipe adapted from Nourished Kitchen