Pear Apple Sauce

I recently watched an episode of Jamie Oliver’s Cooking at Home show on the Cooking Channel and the show was focused on strawberries. One thing that he made was a strawberry jam. He said his mother never used pectin to make the jam; it was just the strawberries and some sugar, cooked for about 30 minutes on medium heat on the stove.

It got me to thinking; I have a lot of pears I have to use up! I wonder if I can make a pear jam? I have a very generous co-worker Chris who has been bringing in pears from the pear tree in his back yard, so I’ve been eating pears every day this week.

I had about 7 pears, to which I added 2 red delicious apples. Once I got started, I peeled and sliced the fruit, put it in a medium pot and then realized I had no sugar! BUT, I did have honey, so I put ¼ cup of honey to see what would happen.

Well, after cooking it for about 30 minutes, the pear had softened the juices came out of the fruits and my kitchen smelled amazing. The apples were still a little firm, so I cooked it for another 15 minutes on low heat. I used my immersion blender and pureed most of it, but leaving it kind of chunky too. So, instead of having a jam, it was more like apple/pear sauce! It tasted delicious. It would be great warm over vanilla ice cream, served with pancakes, added to yogurt, spooned over a pork chop or just eaten as a side dish.

Jenn’s Pear/Apple Sauce
Ingredients:

7 pears, peeled and sliced
2 red delicious apples, peeled and sliced
¼ cup honey
1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

Peel and slice the fruit, put it in a medium pot, add the honey and simmer on low for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. That’s it. You don’t need to add any liquid, because the pears and apples release so much juice.

Have you ever made jam, and if so, how did it turn out??