[1]Last week, a dear friend of mine blessed me with two large boxes full of pears. So, as you have probably guessed, I’ve been doing a lot of canning lately.
I wanted to shake up the monotony of plain pears in syrup and really surprise my family with something different. I added cinnamon sticks, cloves and vanilla to the syrup to really spice it up. I couldn’t stop “taste testing” these pears; they were so good!
This is a great recipe for cooking pears and contains an aromatic mixture of spices that will make the whole house smell like fall is finally here.
This is a hot pack method canning recipe, but it can easily be adapted to a oven baked dish.
Spiced Vanilla Pears
Makes 4 quarts
- 2 to 3 pounds pears per quart
- 7 cup sugar syrup (3 1/2 cups sugar with 6 cups filtered water)
- 4 cinnamon sticks
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 12 whole cloves
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- Sterilize jars, lids and rings.
- In the meantime, core and peel pears and cut pears into quarters or halves.
- In a 5 quart pot, over medium heat, make a light syrup and add the vanilla extract to the sugar mixture. Stir and keep syrup hot.
- Add sliced pears and lemon juice to the hot syrup and cook for 5 to 6 minutes or until hot throughout.
- Place a small piece of cinnamon bark (about a 1/2″ to 5/8″ piece) and 3-5 cloves in each hot jar.
- Pack hot pears into hot jars leaving 1/2″ head space. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two piece caps. Process pints 20 minutes, quarts 25 minutes, in a boiling-water bath canner.