Secret Recipe Club 10/17: Pear Butter

jar of pear butter

This is my October post for Secret Recipe Club Group B. Interested in joining in on the fun? Find out more information here!

This month I was assigned Theresa from Island Vittles. I had such a hard time picking one recipe to make this month. I ended up bookmarking 4 or 5 different things to go back and try, especially the rosemary and parmesan popoversyum!

I finally settled on a recipe, pear butter. It sounded delicious and very seasonal.

Ironically enough, I am posting this exactly 1 year after Theresa originally posted the recipe!

Pear butter is very similar to other fruit butters I have made. It’s smooth and sweet characteristics make it ideal for spreading on toast, spooning over ice cream, or stirring into yogurt.

peeled pears 200x300 Secret Recipe Club 10/17: Pear Butter lemon zest 200x300 Secret Recipe Club 10/17: Pear Butter Ingredients 200x300 Secret Recipe Club 10/17: Pear Butter

While I was making the delicious vat of fruit butter I started to think of possible uses

My first thought was a turkey panini with granny smith apple slices, crispy bacon and smoked gouda. Then I thought how I could share this with a lot of people. An hor d’oeuvres tray with the fruit butter as a center piece, bread, fruit, cheese, a few salty meats and a bottle of wine would be tasty too.

This recipe [Read more...]

Homemade Apple Butter

apple butter in the jar

Apples have been mentioned a lot lately. It’s starting to be the time of year when the leaves change, squash is in season, and apples are falling off trees.

When we had our first fall teaser a few weeks ago I was in the mood to do something with apples. I decided on apple butter.

Last year I made pumpkin butter and I somehow made it through the fall with out making apple butter. I must have been little traumatized from the fudge and whoopie pies

But this year apple butter was first on my fall to do list, and I was so happy with the results. If you have never tasted apple butter, imagine a smoother and slightly sweeter applesauce… 

This recipe tastes clean, homey, and isn’t half bad for you! I decided to cut down on the sugar for a healthier spread.

apple butter on toast 682x1024 Homemade Apple Butter

I also chose to leave out the spices. After reading through different recipes online, I noticed the different variations. Some people liked a lot of sugar, some people wanted a little less. Some people wanted to add nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, salt and other spices…while other wanted a simple and purely apple butter.

You can be as creative as you want with this. Use what you have on hand, and the type of apples you like.

[Read more...]

Tomato Jam

cooking the jam

Tomatoes are not typically something you would find on BigFatBaker. Tomatoes have the reputation for being mainly a savory ingredient, but they are full of natural sugars! Here are a few other pages I found with delicious tomato sweets: Sour Salty Bitter Sweet, Tomato Tarte Tatin on bonappetit.com, and CDKitchen shares a collection of tomato cakes!

To use up my final farmer’s market tomatoes I decided to make something very unfamiliar to me…jam. I am not much of a canning person so it’s not often you find me making jam like things.

I don’t like to wait too long for food..

Thankfully this recipe was fairly quick and totally worth the wait!

done 1024x682 Tomato Jam

If you have not seen or tasted tomato jam before I would say it’s something like ketchup’s crazy cousin. [Read more...]

Homemade Pumpkin Butter

Pumpkin Butter

I love the change from summer to fall. It is one of the best seasons for baking.

Fall offers so many different flavor inspirations. Pumpkin spice being one of the most iconic.

Pumpkins have a great flavor and consistency that is very versatile. You can use pumpkin in any of your favorite baked goods, or in your favorite savory entrees. Soups, stuffed pumpkins, breads, cakes, and ice cream are just a few items that come to mind.

And my most recent favorite is pumpkin butter. That’s right, pumpkin butter. It’s just like apple butter, but pumpkin.

It is great in place of anything you would normally eat with jam or jelly. It’s also highly recommended as an ice cream topping.

Pumpkins Homemade Pumpkin Butter

The spicy sweet combination in the butter is addicting and this is one recipe everyone should add to their favorites. This butter also makes a great holiday gift.

Making the butter is really easy, and the recipe doesn’t call for many ingredients…you probably have most of them already! [Read more...]

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