Honey, I'm home.

Canning is one of those fun activities where I actively look for items to can.  My husband would say that if an object sits too long, it's in danger of being pressurized.  I'm beginning to feel a little super-human...  If you can boil water, you can make great pear honey.  It's just that easy.

Recently, my boss was telling me how much he loves pears.  A light bulb goes off in my head (another way of saying a rattling starts in my brain) and I remember my favorite pear honey recipe.  Like the foolproof bread recipe, it's simple to make.  In fact, my last batch I made while watching the Baltimore Ravens win in the playoffs.  Double joy!

Pear Honey

3 pounds Bartlett or Bosc pears
1 8 ounce can of crushed pineapple, with the juice
5 cups sugar (I use half brown sugar and half white)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
(makes 7 pints)

Wash and sterilize your pint jars and lids.  Keep hot until ready for pear honey.  In a water bath canner (or a large stock pot) place a small metal platform on the bottom to keep jars from sitting on the bottom.  You will need enough water to cover your jars with an inch over the top of the lids when setting in the pot.  Bring water to a rolling boil.

Peel and core pears unless you have a VitaMix blender.  (If you do have a VitaMix, you can just pull the stems off and cut any bad spots off and throw cut up pears, core, peel, and seeds all in the pot.)  In a large non-reactive pot you will add cut up pears, sugar, pineapple with juice and lemon juice.  Cook until tender.  Process in a blender until smooth.  In a VitaMix, the core, peel and seeds are processed in with the pears and completely disappear.  The end result looks like honey.  Such is my love affair with my VitaMix!

Pour honey into pints to the bottom of the neck of the jar and put lids and rims on "finger tight".  If you need a wrench it loosen it, you've gone too far.  Place your jars in the water bath canner.  I recommend using canning tongs to eliminate baking soda on burned fingers later.  Cover with a lid.  As soon as you have a good rolling boil again, time 10 minutes and you are done.

Remove the lid and with the tongs, take each pint out and place on a towel in a draft-free area.  Allow to cool completely.  You will hear the lids suction down as they cool.  That is the sound of success!

Great in Bread

My first successful homemade bread

A slice of homemade whole wheat honey bread
with  homemade pear honey

I love to cook.  People who know me are nodding (and rolling their eyes).  I am always talking about food and I tend to expound on how my creations were made.  I really should have taught cooking!

I really love the art of canning but bread baking has escaped me for so long; I just couldn't seem to get it right.  I would follow the directions, but the dough wouldn't rise.  I began to doubt my yeast, my bread machine, my hands.  I was never sure what the problem was.  Recently, I joined a bible study called, "1,000 Gifts" by Ann Voskamp.  In her video of the same name, she makes bread while talking and it inspired me to try again.  I found Ann's recipe on her website, A Holy Experience called  Ann Voskamp's Foolproof Bread Recipe.  It really is foolproof.

There are a couple of interesting things about this bread.  Normally. when you make bread, you add yeast to a bowl of warm water, add sugar, etc. and then add flour to your concoction to begin your dough.  This recipe you add your warm water, honey, oil, flour, salt and flax, then add the yeast at the end.  Mix, let rise 30 minutes until your dough doubles in size and then bake 30 - 35 minutes.  This has been the easiest recipe I have ever tried - with the best results.

I will say, that if you decide to try this recipe, you may want to cut it in half at first.  The recipe makes 5 loaves of bread and my Kitchen Aid mixer was actually straining toward the end.  My first attempt last week did not rise, but my yeast is getting old, so this week I bought new and I made half whole wheat flour and half unbleached white flour.  I used 1 cup of milled flax seed  as recommended (the grocery store did not have wheat gluten*) added a little molasses.  I may add more molasses next time as I love the flavor.  This time I used my Hobart N50 (commercial grade) and it handled the dough fine, but it really fills the bowl!  Hence, the suggestion to cut the recipe in half.  The bread came out  fragrant and beautiful - sliced warm with a little butter and homemade pear honey.  Warm sweetness melts in my mouth on a cold winter's day.

*If you are new to the idea of bread making, wheat gluten is an enhancer for heavier breads.  Whole wheat, graham and other heavier flours require a "boost" to rise.  By adding wheat gluten or milled flax seed, your bread rises and is less dense.