Pear and Raspberry Bread

Move over banana bread, this pear and raspberry bread is even tastier.  With juicy diced pears and fresh raspberries dotted throughout, this version is absolutely delicious. 

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Hi friends! I hope you are enjoying the official start of Fall. I’m bringing you a new recipe that I hope gets your excited to enjoy pears this season. These caramelized pears and mascarpone donuts are satisfying, sweet, and oh so perfect with that fried dough wrapped around the filling.

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The post Caramelized Pears and Mascarpone Donuts appeared first on A Classic Twist.

I am back again with another galette. This time with fall’s unsung hero – pears. This pear almond galette is a fall must-have with juicy tender pears cooked inside flaky puff pastry. Simple, delightful and even better with a drizzle of maple caramel. Just what fall desserts are made of.

Pears are one of my favorite fall fruits. I wish I baked more with them but beyond a poached pear now and then, I forget of how good they are baked. This year, I was determined to throw a few into a pie form. But as usual, the lazy side of me takes over and I result to a galette instead. It has all the flavors of a pie – warm fruit, buttery crust- and not the work. This pear almond galette starts with a puff pastry crust, a pillowy goodness of buttery crust. The pastry crust is filled with a sweet almond frangipane and the spiced pears layered on top of it. It’s all baked to golden perfection!!

It’s simply delicious. It’s going to be my go-to dessert this fall to any gatherings.

This recipe was inspired by the new Simple Bites Kitchen cookbook. If you are not already a fan of Aimee over at Simple Bites, you need to be. She’s one of my favorite blogs and I’ve been reading it for years. Her second cookbook just came out and it’s full of amazing cozy family-friendly recipes.  I adapted her recipe for apple galette with pears. Grab a copy of this must-have book on Amazon.

More Pear Recipes

• Pear and Raspberry Bread
• Pear Apple Cider
• Pear Apple Pie
• Pear Crisp with Oat Crumb Topping
• Baked Pears

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Yield: 1 rectangular galette

Pear Almond Galette

This pear almond galette is a fall-must have with juicy tender pears cooked on top of an almond frangipane inside a flaky puff pastry crust.

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Ingredients

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• 1 pound puff pastry, thawed overnight in the refrigerator
• ⅓ cup unsalted butter, softened
• ⅔ cup brown sugar, divided
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup almond meal/flour
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4-5 large pears (I used Bosc pears)
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon turbinado or raw cane sugar, for sprinkling
• 2 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted, for garnish

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle about 1/8^th inch thick. Transfer the pastry to the prepared sheet and place in freezer.
• In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and a 1/3 cup of the brown sugar. Add in 1 egg and beat until smooth. Finally, add the almond meal and flour and mix until smooth paste forms.
• Peel and core the pears and slice into ¼ inch slices. Toss the pears with the remaining sugar and the nutmeg and cinnamon.
• Remove the pastry from the freezer. Spread the almond frangipane over the puff pastry, leaving at least 2-3-inch border on all sides. Arrange the pear slices over the frangipane, making sure to tuck them in close together.
• Fold the sides over the pears in a freeform manner, pinching the folds together as you go. It doesn’t have to be perfect – that’s the beauty! Brush the pears with the melted butter. Beat the remaining egg and use to brush over the puff pastry. Sprinkle the whole galette with the turbinado sugar.
• Bake galette for 50-55 minutes, until the pastry is golden and the pears are soft to the touch. Let cool slightly before sprinkling with the almonds. Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream.

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Happy Monday friends! A slice of this spiced pear cake will make any day a happy one. I know this because it solved my weekend traveling woes. After almost 12 hours of trying to get home from Atlanta this weekend, I relaxed with a cup of tea and the last slice of this cake that I left in the fridge. For a moment there, I was able to forget about the miserable hours spent trying to get home.

Since when is traveling by plane so much hassle?? It makes you hate flying and dread leaving your house as you may never return to it in time to get anything done. Sadly, I LOVE traveling and can’t imagine not being able to. Ever since my late teens when I moved to Singapore for high school, I’ve been traveling back and forth. When I finally settled in Upstate NY for graduate school and started a family, my traveling has reduced but I still look forward to that 2-3 trips a year when I visit family, friends and attend blogging events. But with always being delayed and unforeseen airline cancellations, I am dreading leaving home. Just this past summer, it took me 12 hours to fly to NC for a work trip. 12 hours for a 2-hour flight!! It would have been faster to drive at that rate.

And this weekend, I went down to Atlanta for a surprise baby shower for my sister (which was AMAZING) and it took me a again a whole day to make it home. I am slowly hating to fly and just have to suck it up and start doing the long drives. But that reduces the already limited time I can spend with the folks I am visiting. Bottom line, airlines suck. They take the fun out of traveling and exploring new places.

Now that I have that off my chest, how about we talk about this spiced pear cake?? I am LOVING everything about it for so many reasons. First of all, there are pears in the cake which are amazing in baked goods and makes everything moist and soft. Then, there is browned butter, which we all know makes everything so much better. That nutty browned butter flavor and juicy pears gives this cake a unique flavor that is almost earthy. Finally, the dash of warm fall spices in the cake and a spiced cinnamon syrup soak makes it all comforting.

I must say, my favorite part about this spiced pear cake is the honey caramel frosting that goes with it. Honey caramel (made of just honey and butter) is whipped into a light vanilla buttercream and that sweetness is beautifully paired with the moist, soft cake. All and all, this cake is a perfect rendition of fall flavors and you need to HAVE it on your table at some point this fall and holiday season.

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Yield: one 8 or 9-inch cake

Spiced Pear Cake with Honey Caramel Frosting

Prep Time 1 minute

Cook Time 45 minutes

Additional Time 1 hour 39 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 25 minutes

Ingredients

For Cake:

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• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup full-fat plain yogurt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, browned and cooled
• ¼ cup apple cider
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 3 cups peeled and grated pears

For Spiced Syrup:

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• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 whole cloves
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Honey Caramel

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• 1 cup honey
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Honey Caramel Frosting

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• 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup honey caramel
• pinch of salt
• 3-4 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

For Spiced Pear Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease three 8-inch round cake pans with baking spray. Line with parchment circles and grease parchment.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt, browned butter, apple cider and eggs.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined. Increase speed to medium and mix for 1 minute. Be careful not to overmix. Fold in the grated pears using a rubber spatula.
4. Divide the batter evenly into the prepared pans.
5. Bake cake layers until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes.

For the spiced syrup:

1. Make the syrup while the cake cools. Combine the sugar, water, cinnamon stick, cloves, nutmeg and salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar and stir in the vanilla. Remove from heat and let sit for at least 20 minutes. Strain to remove the cinnamon sticks and cloves and let cool completely.
2. Remove cakes from oven and let cool slightly in pans, 2-3 minutes. Poke holes in the cakes with a skewer. Brush the hot cake layers with the syrup. Let cake layers cool completely in pans.

Honey Caramel:

1. Combine the honey and butter in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil without stirring for about a minute. Remove from heat and stir occasionally as the caramel cools completely.

Honey Frosting:

1. In a medium bowl, beat butter and honey caramel sauce on low speed until just combined. Increase speed to medium-high and beat for 2-3 minutes until light. Add in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Mix on low speed until incorporated about 1 minute. Increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

Assembly:

1. Place on cake layer on a serving plate. Top with ½ cup frosting and spread evenly. Place another cake on top and repeat the process until the last layer. Frost the outside of the cake and decorate as desired. Here, I sifted cinnamon + powdered sugar on the top

Notes

Recipe from Cake Magic!

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This is a tale of lack of inspiration.

I think pears hate me. This is the third pear recipe I’ve made in the past month that failed to photograph well. First, there was a very high top brown butter pear muffin. It was just not happening that day I tried taking the photos and I gave up and enjoyed them instead. The recipe was inspired by this one in case you want to indulge!

Then there was this pear tart three weeks ago and the photos were very bland so they stayed in my archives, untouched. Surprisingly, it is one of my favorite recipes so far because the vanilla bean custard filling of the tart is to die for. I was very proud that I developed a recipe idea on my own and it tasted great! Just didn’t picture well at the time.

Not giving up on pears, I made this spiced pear bread the other day only to have the same issues shooting. But bad pictures could not stop me this time from sharing the recipe with you.

This spiced pear bread is moist, flavorful, and delicious! Filled with homemade applesauce, walnuts, and pears, it is seriously the best bread I have ever tried. We devoured it in TWO days. Mr. J loved it so much that I am required to make it again…at least that’s what the not-so-subtle sign of pear purchase is telling me.

Obviously, I can’t blame the pears for my picture misfortunes. It’s all me and my uninspiring moments in October. I’ve not been feeling very motivated about blogging lately because of many things going on in my life and this is clearly coming through in my pictures. But just with pears though. Look at this brown butter cheddar apple pie? One of my favorite photos to date and happened a few days after this bread. Makes me wonder if pears are secretly sabotaging me. But who cares, as I step away from my computer to get inspired once again, I will be munching on this spiced pear bread!

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Yield: 1 9x 5 loaf

Spiced Pear Bread

This spiced pear bread is moist, flavorful and delicious! Filled with homemade applesauce, walnuts and pears, it is seriously the best quick bread recipe.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons divided
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon all-spice
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¾ cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup Greek yogurt, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup peeled and chopped pears
• ½ cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
• 1 tablespoon Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a medium loaf pan with baking spray.
2. Whisk together the 1 1/2 cup flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, sugars, applesauce, Greek yogurt, and vanilla extract to combine. In another small bowl, toss the pears with two tablespoons of flour.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until it is combined. Fold in the pears and walnuts, if using.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar and bake for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing and cooling completely on a rack.

Recommended Products

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• 
  OXO Good Grips 3-Piece Silicone Spatula Set
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  Pyrex Glass Mixing Bowl Set (3-Piece)
• 
  OXO Good Grips Non-Stick Pro Loaf Pan, 1 lb.

Making this Recipe?

Share it with us on Instagram using #aclassictwist so we can see what you are baking up in your kitchen!

How do you stay motivated? What keeps you inspired?

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