Pears… a recipe in process

Brooks and I were wandering thru the produce section of Publix today. I mentioned that I wanted to make a new type of pound cake — perhaps with pears. Brooks suggested oranges instead. Guess whose choice won out.

I bought 5 pears, came home and made pear sauce. I flavored the pear sauce with just a touch of ginger and added sugar sparingly. Of course trying to do this while fixing dinner was a bit of a challenge. Thankfully I didn’t confuse frying okra with cooking down pears.

This is the first version of the recipe. I’m not happy with it. While the texture is perfect and the base flavor is, the pears need to be stronger.

Pear Pound Cake

2 sticks butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup pear sauce

6 eggs, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 cups flour

1/2 cup pear brandy

Preheat oven to 325*F. Grease and flour bundt pan or 2 loaf pans.

Combine butter, sugar and pear sauce. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Sift together the salt, baking powder, ginger and flour. Add dry ingredients to the batter, alternating with brandy. Begin and end with dry ingredients.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Do check for doneness. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes and then invert onto cake plate.