Pears are a sweet and varied fruit perfect for fall baking. If you need a break from fall apple recipes, try some of these favorite pear recipes, including my popular pear cake with cardamom glaze!
Pears can be an overlooked and forgotten fruit. I think they get lost in the shuffle between summer berry season and fall apple season, but these late summer to early fall fruits are wonderful and complex. Like apples, there are different varieties that range in flavor profiles. This post celebrates pears in all their glory, with a range of recipes. If this is a fruit you’ve overlooked in the past, now’s the time to stop and enjoy one of my favorite fruits for baking.
For most recipes, you are going to want firm pears that hold up well. Most varieties will do, if you avoid anything that is too soft. For example to get the perfect ratio of fruit to cake in the Pear Cake recipe, you’ll want to choose thin, tall pears. Here are a few options:
Bosc
Concorde
Starkrimson
Bartlett
Each has a great shape and flavor for the cake, and most would stand up well when poached!
These tender and succulent poached pears are perfect with ice cream or sorbet. The pears are simple to make and beautifully absorb the poaching flavors.
The perfumed sweetness of the pears in this cake meets the warmth of candied ginger and cardamom to create a sophisticated combination that tastes as comforting as Grandma's house feels.
A beautiful tart is a sophisticated dish to add to any table. The pears, almond cream and toasted almonds in this recipe are perfect complements to one another visually and in flavor. I love serving this dish for the holidays because it is elegant, but simple to make. The tart dough is from SWEET by Helen Goh and Yotam Ottolenghi.
This poached pear ginger cake is spicy with a kick of freshly grated ginger and tons of warm spice from cloves and cinnamon. It’s by no means an overly sweet cake, which is how I like them. The molasses gives it color and that edge of bitter that I love.
This Pear Raspberry Upside-Down Cake is the best of summer and the celebration of what is to come in fall. I started by caramelizing the pears, as I would for a tarte tatin. Slow and steady is the trick to getting the right flavor and texture. The combination of the caramel pears, the bright raspberries and the rich cake is pretty close to perfection.
This pear pie with caramel is a perfect fall or winter treat. It looks stunning, but you'll be surprised just how easy it is to put together. Simply make a few components, then assemble and bake.
For this spin on my granny's dessert I combined Swedish Cream with a poached pear puree and then topped it with a layer of poached pear jelly and put it on a base of almond joconde sponge cake. It takes a bit of time but is really quite easy to make!
Aran Goyoaga's new book Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple includes this amazing recipe for meringue cake with roasted apples. I made it as written, except I did mine with pears. Aran has graciously allowed me to share her recipe with you.
This is sweet spin on the Midwestern staple, hot dish! The pears add their wonderful and distinct flavor, and cranberries give a tart kick. The combination is a fun twist on fall crisps.
As my beautiful pears ripened, the texture was as soft as an overly ripe banana, so I got the idea of making my banana bread recipe with chunks of the ripe pears. I added a bit of homemade granola, instead of the toasted coconut I usually put in banana bread.
The flavors of this tarte tatin are a match made in heaven. The tartness of the pomegranate is a perfect match for the sweet caramel and the mellow flavor of the seckel pears.
This rustic and stunning pear galette recipe comes from one of my favorite bakers, Michelle Gayer. It's an easy-to make recipe and a wonderful way to learn about puff pastry.
I'm Zoë François, Emmy-nominated host of Zoë Bakes on HBO and a New York Times best-selling author sharing bakery-quality recipes that are doable for everyone! More...
