Do you ever find yourself with pears that are starting to go bad? Use them in this lightly sweet pear bread topped with cardamom crumble!
I have a terrible habit of buying fruit to have as an afternoon snack and then forgetting all about it and leaving it on the counter every morning. By the end of the week it’s brown and bruised and I’m lucky if I actually ate any of it at all.
A while back I was about to throw out a particularly sad looking bunch of pears, when I started to feel guilty about wasting so much food. For a second, I wished i had bought bananas so I could throw them into the freezer for smoothies or bread. Then I decided to see what would happen if I tried to make a quick bread with pears instead of bananas.
The result was spectacular!
The bread is tender and cake-like, with the subtly floral flavor of pears in every bite. It’s crowned with a crisp crumb topping scented with spicy cardamom, and it’s completely addictive.
I’ve made it three times now, and it’s so good that I don’t always want to wait for the pears to soften. The bread is still tasty if you use firm pears, but the texture is better is you let them get a little soft first.
Now, what should I do with that bag of grapefruit that I impulse bought last week?
Ingredients
- 3 very ripe Bartlett or D'Anjou pears
- 1 ⅔ cups sugar
- ⅔ cup coconut oil liquid
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 4 eggs
- 3 cups Gold Medal® all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the crumb topping
- ¼ cup Gold Medal® all purpose flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 tablespoons cold butter
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350ºF. Line two 8-inch loaf pans with foil.
- Shred the pears on the coarse side of a box grated, discarding the stem and core. Gently squeeze the shredded pears and pour off any excess juice.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the shredded pears, sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
- In a second bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the pear mixture; stir to combine. Pout the batter into the prepared loaf pans.
- In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/4 cup flour, brown sugar, and cardamom. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles wet sand. Sprinkle the crumb topping in an even layer over the top of the bread.
- Bake for 40-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the bread comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before slicing.
I didn’t know what to do with all these pears I acquired from my mom after visiting her during this pandemic, so I googled a recipe for easy pear bread, and this recipe was intriguing to me because of the cardamom; plus, I have it on hand.
I followed exactly the amount of ingredients and instructions on the list.
Wow! These bread came out moist, soft and scrumptious. As for the crumble on one of the bread, I added 1/4 cup chopped walnuts for a little more crunch & texture.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipe.
Dad of three boys
Pears are a feast or famine thing around here–I love it when my neighbor-with-a-pear-tree gives me a big bag . . . until I’m staring at that big bag and wondering what the heck I’m gonna do with all those pears! Pear butter, pear chutney will put up some of it, sure. But this looks wonderful. And I love cardamom from my time in Finland so I know it tastes terrific.
Thanks, Lauren!