My Honey Pear Conserve with Dried Cherries is a perfect party appetizer and goes great with soft cheese like baked brie. The honeycomb is edible too! ~ This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #DonVictorHoney #CollectiveBias ~
A few days ago, my son asked me to buy him some pears. According to him, I only bought fruit for his sister and he was tired of apples and bananas. I thought the request was a little bit odd because he never eats pears, but who was I to say no to a kid asking for more fruit?!
On my next shopping trip, I purchased a gorgeous amount of Anjou pears. They’ve always been my favorite and I figured that their sweet, but mild taste would bode well with him. Unfortunately, I forgot that he was getting a palette expander put in the next day, which meant no solids for at least a week.
With a bowl full of pears sitting in front of me, and my oldest feeling down in the dumps because he was on a “baby food” diet, I decided that I would do what I always do when I’m stressed. I’d make some jam. Yep, you heard me right. I make jam when I’m stressed, or sad, or overwhelmed. Something about cooking fruit on the stove and turning it into lovely jars of jam really calms my soul. It’s very odd, I know – but I’m a bit quirky like that.
Since my son loves honey, I decided to make a Honey Pear Conserve with Dried Cherries. Whoah! Stop the presses. That sounds way too fancy for an ordinary day of just cooking in the kitchen, right? Well never fear, conserve is just a very fancy schmancy name for a jam that is meant to be served right away.
As you all know my from previous jam recipes, I’m a sucker for freezer jams and most of my jams are full of squishy fruit that the kids have boycotted. I swear these jams taste the best because the fruit is at its sweetest point – but my kids just won’t listen. If they see a blemish, all bets are off – until I turn them into scrumptious little jars of jam. Then they eat it by the spoonful.
Anyways, I had all of these Anjou pears staring at me, plus an enormous carton of dried cherries that no one was eating, so I decided they’d both go into the jam. As I dug around in the pantry, I also found my new jar of Don Victor Honey (from Walmart) in the Hispanic aisle. It has the honeycomb sealed right inside the jar and I’ve been dying to try it.
I’m pre-testing holiday recipes over here and I knew I could convince my husband to try the honeycomb if I served it with his weakness – Baked Brie. Plus, my kids are always up for an “experiment” so I told them they could try the honeycomb too. They thought it was really funny that the honeycomb acted – and tasted – like honey-flavored bubblegum. You can actually break off a piece of the comb and then chew it like bubblegum. Once the honey is gone, you can either politely spit the wax out or swallow it.
Although I find the honeycomb to taste best when served with cheese and crackers, you can also cut off a piece of the honeycomb and spread it over toast while it’s still hot. You may have to mash it up a bit, but the heat softens the comb so it flattens into the toast along with the honey. The honeycomb doesn’t melt, but it does become very soft and aromatic. I imagine it would also work well on breakfast foods like biscuits, French toast, or pancakes on Sunday!
But again, I digress. My Honey Pear Conserve with Dried Cherries was a success. My son happily ate it by the spoonful and I served the rest alongside some baked brie and honey. As it turns out, the family liked this combo so much, we’ll be seeing it again in a few weeks when we get together for the holidays.
HONEY PEAR CONSERVE WITH DRIED CHERRIES
Ingredients:
- 1 Meyer lemon
- 4 Anjour pears
- 1/2 cup dried cherries
- 1/3 cup Dom Victor honey
- 1/3 cup turbinado sugar
Directions:
Step 1: Cut lemon in half. Place a large strainer over the stockpot – this will catch the seeds from the lemon and keep them from getting into you jam. Squeeze all of the juice out of the lemon into the strainer and stockpot.
Step 2: Peel and cut your pears into large chunks. Add them to the stockpot along with the dried cherries. Stir in lemon juice immediately to prevent the pears from browning.
Step 3: Turn the heat to medium and add turbinado sugar and honey. Stir often or the honey mixture will stick to the bottom of your stockpot, especially if you are using stainless steel like we do! Cook for approximately 10 minutes, then smash fruit with a potato masher. (If you like your conserve more smooth-textured than chunky, you can remove some of the heated fruit at this point and chop it up in a blender. But be careful. To make sure you don’t get burned, cover the blender lid with a towel – the heated fruit and steam can burn pop the lid off.)
Step 4: Cook for approximately 10 more minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat at the 20 minute mark. Do not keep cooking as the conserve will continue to set as it cools.
Step 5: Place conserve into any kind of clean, sterilized container (canning jar) until you are ready to use it. Leave conserve sitting out at room temperature for 1 hour to cool down before putting it in the refrigerator. Use conserve within 2-3 days.
Want to learn more about Don Victor Honey? Check them out on Facebook or visit their website for more information.
Happy Jam Making,
Denine
