Do you ever find yourself with pears that are starting to go bad? Use them in this lightly sweet pear bread topped with cardamom crumble!
I have a terrible habit of buying fruit to have as an afternoon snack and then forgetting all about it and leaving it on the counter every morning. By the end of the week it’s brown and bruised and I’m lucky if I actually ate any of it at all.
A while back I was about to throw out a particularly sad looking bunch of pears, when I started to feel guilty about wasting so much food. For a second, I wished i had bought bananas so I could throw them into the freezer for smoothies or bread. Then I decided to see what would happen if I tried to make a quick bread with pears instead of bananas.
The result was spectacular!
The bread is tender and cake-like, with the subtly floral flavor of pears in every bite. It’s crowned with a crisp crumb topping scented with spicy cardamom, and it’s completely addictive.
I’ve made it three times now, and it’s so good that I don’t always want to wait for the pears to soften. The bread is still tasty if you use firm pears, but the texture is better is you let them get a little soft first.
Now, what should I do with that bag of grapefruit that I impulse bought last week?
Ingredients
- 3 very ripe Bartlett or D'Anjou pears
- 1 ⅔ cups sugar
- ⅔ cup coconut oil liquid
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 4 eggs
- 3 cups Gold Medal® all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the crumb topping
- ¼ cup Gold Medal® all purpose flour
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 tablespoons cold butter
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350ºF. Line two 8-inch loaf pans with foil.
- Shred the pears on the coarse side of a box grated, discarding the stem and core. Gently squeeze the shredded pears and pour off any excess juice.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the shredded pears, sugar, coconut oil, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
- In a second bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the pear mixture; stir to combine. Pout the batter into the prepared loaf pans.
- In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/4 cup flour, brown sugar, and cardamom. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles wet sand. Sprinkle the crumb topping in an even layer over the top of the bread.
- Bake for 40-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the bread comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before slicing.
can I use canola oil instead of coconut? Never used coconut oil and I’m the only family member that likes coconut. Will you taste it in the bread?
Canola or vegetable oil should be fine, but you can’t taste the coconut in the bread at all.
I concur, cardamom + pear is divine…and what’s not to love about quick breads? The best. Can’t wait to make this 🙂
I do the same thing, Lauren. I walk into Wegman’s and I’m like Julie Andrews on the mountain top in the Sound of Music, tossing fruits into my cart and thinking, “I can TOTALLY eat all of this!” I LOVE the idea of a quick bread to use up fruit and you KNOW how I feel about cardamom! TOTAL WIN.
Pear and cardamom sound like a delicious combination.
I love pear bread and have actually made it from canned pears as well! Not a huge fan of cardamom, so I’d sub cinnamon, but I agree, pears make great quick bread!! The crumble looks yummy!
I wonder if I can do this same thing with mangoes…I have some on my counter that are a bit past their prime! Great idea!
I might have to make that if they give us pears again this week for my CSA pickup! For the grapefruits? Make curd!
I have an Asian pear tree that I always get way too many pears. My latest new favorite spice is cardamom. I think we have a MATCH. I can’t believe how beautiful your loaf turned out. I have never had a loaf of quick bread look so stately.
This a very very unusual and wonderful mixture. Thanks so much!
Pear and cardamom go together so well. This bread looks heavenly and that crunchy topping is totally calling my name.