This delicious Pear Cobbler brought pleas for repeat performance

This one has netted repeated “Do-again!”s from Hubby. I think he really liked this recipe. He (not-so-subtly) hinted that he’d be just fine with my turning around and immediately making this dish a second time—RIGHT NOW! I think that means it was a winner!

The scrumptious dish was a Pear Cobbler made in a 13-inch-by-9-inch pan, so it lasted us many days (and still Hubby begs for more servings). I’ll have to admit that it was a big adaptation of a very good recipe card I just received from the Chickasaw Nation Nutrition Services. The card called it a Fruit Cocktail Cobbler, but I didn’t have any fruit cocktail on hand and had an abundance of canned pears instead. My wheels started spinning: Why wouldn’t pears work just as well?

I also have to admit that I used the canned variety of pears rather than the fresh, but I heartily recommend that you simply sub 2 cups of fresh, chopped pears that you have cooked in a small pan on the stove until the pears have just softened a bit. This will sub nicely for the 15-ounce can of pears I added in. I also sprinkled in about 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to spice up the flavor.

This dessert actually can be served warm or cold; hubby and I got into quite a conversation about which version was better. He liked his heated and served with sugar-free, fat-free caramel sauce (We use Smucker’s sundae topping) and sugar-free whipped topping. Plain or with these additions, this was a wonderful, low-calorie, virtually sugar-free dessert adoption that shouldn’t produce Diner’s Remorse.

This Pear Cobbler represents a great way to feel indulgent at holiday time without lots of regrets about eating something not good for you.

Pear Cobbler

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1 egg (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)

1 (15-ounce) can pears (in their own juice) or 2 cups fresh pears chopped and cooked on the

stovetop until just softened

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

cooking spray

1/2 cup brown sugar (or 1/4 cup brown-sugar substitute)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 13-inch-by-9-inch pan with cooking spray. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, egg, cinnamon, and pears with their liquid in a bowl. Transfer mixture to the pan. Top with 1/2 cup brown sugar (can add a little more if you desire). Bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

No partridge, but Pear Cake with its chunks of fresh pears is super-yummy

Our pears are emerging by the basketfuls now. When we go out to pick them, we no longer bring in just a handful, but our little straw basket (that once sat on my mother’s hearth to contain her sewing projects and now is our gathering basket as we approach our garden) brims when we return. Usually, at that point, the pears are too hard to carve into, so for several days we house them in a plain brown paper bag until they ripen.

In my cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, I included a Pear Cake recipe that always has been a favorite. A neighbor’s gift of a sack of fresh pears from his farm once inspired me to find this recipe for this cake, which freezes extremely well. Now having pears from our own garden, I baked two loaves: one to serve recently when my brother- and sister-in-law visited and another to take with me as a hostess gift on our recent trip to Colorado.

The cake, with its 3 cups chopped pears, is hugely moist. The cinnamon, cloves, and allspice make it spicy and good. After I took the baked cake from its loaf pan, I poured an optional Brown-Sugar Pear Glaze atop it. The pear syrup for which the glaze recipe specifies I obtained by mashing a small amount of reserved pear slices until 2 tablespoons of pear puree formed. The cake is moist enough without the glaze, but I'll have to say that the glaze as a topping is a pure delight.

No partridge, but a wonderful pear tree that is giving us its beautiful gifts to enjoy ourselves and to share with others.

Pear Cake

3 cups chopped pears

2 cups sugar (or sugar substitute)

1 cup canola oil

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 eggs (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground allspice

2 teaspoons soda

1 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1 cup pecans, chopped

Mix first three ingredients; let stand for one hour. Beat eggs and add them to pear mixture. Sift all dry ingredients together and add to pear mixture. Add chopped pecans. Pour into greased and floured tube pan or two loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. If desired prepare Brown-Sugar Pear Glaze (below) and pour on top of the loaves.

Brown-Sugar Pear Glaze

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons pear syrup (can be obtained by mashing up a few pear slices until it forms a liquid puree)

1/4 cup brown sugar (or 1/8 cup brown-sugar substitute)

1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar

Melt butter; stir in pear syrup and brown sugar. Bring just to a boil. Stir in powdered sugar. Boil for 1 minute. Pour over Pear Cake loaves that have been removed from their baking pans and cooled.