so many pears, less than 24 hours!

[relizabeth]

A guy at work's pear tree is very productive at the moment. I took a whole bag of them home. But I leave the country for 5 days on Saturday (tomorrow) afternoon. Can I cook them with some butter and sugar and freeze? Any ideas?

[girlwonder88]

Pear sauce and pear butter-freeze. I am doing butter right now, modifying a recipe I found here for ginger apple butter inthecrockpot.

[somervilleoldtimer]

Applesauce freezes really well and I imagine pear sauce would to.

[HillJ]

Pear sauce (made like applesauce over the stove with just a splash of water) add a sprinkle of cinnamon and a hint of brady cooks up in about 15 mins. I whirl the whole batch in a blender and it's good to go. Served with pound cake, yogurt, as is.
Delicious.

[morwen]

That was my first thought too but plainer and in several containers in the freezer so later some could be touched up like you suggest and some could be cooked down to butter and some could be made into pear sauce cake (use a recipe for applesauce cake and swap in pear sauce), some could glaze a pork loin....

[geminigirl]

Good idea with the pear / apple sauce swap. I also want to try a combo of apple butter and cream cheese as a frosting for an apple cake.

[mucho gordo]

Brandy or schnapps works for me. Just let it ferment while you're gone.

[geminigirl]

Any chance you could leave them in the fridge and deal with them when you get back? Or make a couple of pear tarts in a spring form, freeze unbaked and enjoy later. I did those with plums this summer and it worked really well!

[Pia]

Oh, your comment and your name remind me of galleygirl's famous pear cake! That would freeze well, I bet. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/283632

I also made this fantastic pear and chocolate cake (http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/01/bit...) which you could bake and freeze.

Or you could poach some of the pears -- that would make them keep in the fridge longer, I think.

[geminigirl]

Yes, thats one of the ones I made and frooze this summer along with another tart recipe from this site. I meant to recommend that in my original post, thanks for the reminder!

[DMW]

I've seen recipes for pear butter (like apple butter) online, but they usually involve canning.

[sparkareno]

There is a pear soup recipe on the Food Network site (Michael Chiarello) that I make all the time & is delcious. It seems like it would freeze pretty well.

[classylady]

I wish I had your problem the squirrels ate all the pears in my two tree.