Many of my baking projects begin with "Oh, I should use that up!" Pear Bread is no exception.
Pear Bread is banana bread, made with pears instead of bananas. That's basically why I made it; my pears were still good, but they needed to be used soon. This was a great application for them. I was able to cut off any bad spots, and the pears basically dissolved into the bread.
This was pretty good. It was moist for several days. I took it to work and everyone seemed to like it; some said that they even liked it better than banana bread. I had included ½ cup of canned pear in this bread, which didn't harm it at all. Honestly, the pear flavor in it was subtle, and was a little more obvious when I ate a bit of cubed pear. Overall, it tasted like banana bread without banana flavor. (Although it sounds improbable, it's an accurate description.) I enjoyed the walnuts in it, and since I included a little whole wheat flour, it was suitable enough for breakfast.
It was nice to have an alternative to banana bread - especially since some people are squeamish about overripe bananas. This was a nice way to use up pears. I'd make this bread again if I had some pears that I needed to cook.
📖 Recipe
- 3 cups flour (I included ½ cup whole wheat flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups grated pear (grate right before using; I ran out of pears to grate, so I included ½ cup of cubed pear from a can, which worked fine)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup walnuts
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Combine the dry ingredients. Combine the wet ingredients, grating the pears right before adding them. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry. Add the nuts to the batter. (I foolishly added them to the flour, but would add them to the batter in the future.) Scrape batter into 2 greased 9x5 inch loaf pans.
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Bake at 350F for about 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the loaves comes out clean. Cool bread in pan for 10 minutes, then turn bread out onto a wire rack or tip on its side in the pans to cool completely.
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