slow cooker pear-quince butter
How was your weekend? Ours was pretty great. We bought pumpkins and drank pumpkin beer and ate pumpkin mac and cheese and I almost bought a pumpkin Halloween costume for Avery (but I didn’t, because my deep-down Pinterest-driven-yet-not-so-crafty personality wants to DIY this situation so she will probably end up being a baby for Halloween).
And to answer your obvious question, no I am not yet sick of the pumpkin. Or of the apples, or the pears or the quinces.
Have you ever tried a quince? They’re admittedly not the most beautiful or convenient of fruits, but when they are baked — or in this case, slow cooked with brown sugar and vanilla bean and pears to a sweet, caramelized fruit butter perfection — they are quite tasty. And by quite tasty, I mean erase the “quite tasty” and replace it with “YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM.”
The thing about fruit butter is, it’s crazy good when made in the slow cooker. I know it might take a little longer to make it that way as opposed to on the stovetop, but my friends, trust — the low-and-slow approach is the way to go. When you let the pears and the quinces and the brown sugar mingle together and cook down and almost caramelize over the heat of the slow cooker, magical things happen. Magical things that include spreading this on toast, pancakes, waffles, or mixing it in yogurt or oatmeal and most especially just eating it straight off the spoon.
It’s so simple to prepare, too — just a little peeling, shredding and mixing and the slow cooker basically does the rest. (Insert confetti emoji!)
Side note that must be discussed because it, too, was part of our weekend’s conversation: How do you pronounce “quince?” Is it like the “qu” in “queen?” Or is it more like a “k” sound at the beginning? Someone wiser in the ways of fruit pronunciations, please enlighten me.
ANYWAY, I used Bartlett pears for this recipe because they soften and cook down really well, but you can also use Bosc pears. And if you don’t have/can’t find a vanilla bean, vanilla extract will work as a fine substitute. Also, I really hope you can find quinces at your local grocery store, because you need to try them in this way, if no other way.
Finally, you can cook the fruit butter for 8 hours, but I highly suggest cooking it the full 12 hours (Errmmm, I KNOW. But it’s worth it) for the most buttery, caramely, delicious-y results.
And on that note, I’m off to have breakfast with my pear-quince butter — I mean, pear-quince butter with my breakfast, AHEM — and peruse Pinterest for the cutest DIY baby Halloween costume ever that requires absolutely no sewing, cutting, stuffing, taping and probably no gluing, either. Happy Monday!
Slow Cooker Pear-Quince Butter
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 8 hours
- Total Time: 8 hours 10 mins
- Yield: About 5 cups 1x
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 lbs Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and quartered
- 2 1/2 lbs quinces, peeled, cored and quartered
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 vanilla bean (or 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract)
Instructions
- Grate the quartered pears and quinces, either feeding them through a food processor’s shredding blade or using a box grater. Transfer the grated fruit to a 6-quart slow cooker.
- Add the brown sugar and salt to the slow cooker. Run a knife down the center of the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds and the bean (or the vanilla extract, if using in place of a vanilla bean) to the slow cooker. Stir until the ingredients are well combined.
- Cook, covered, on HIGH setting 4 hours.
- Remove and reserve the vanilla bean. Transfer the mixture, in batches if necessary, to a food processor. Puree until smooth. Return the mixture to the slow cooker along with the reserved vanilla bean.
- Cook, uncovered, on HIGH setting at least 4 hours (or up to 8 hours), stirring occasionally.
- Remove the vanilla bean. Cool completely. Transfer to jars, sealed tightly, and refrigerate up to 3 weeks.
I don’t think I could ever be sick of apples or pumpkin in my life. I am so impressed it is made in a rice cooker too!
Totally jealous of your pumpkin filled weekend! I don’t have pumpkin stuff in Sicily but I DO have pears! And this recipe is lovely.
I’m totally obsessed with fruit butters. This is going on the list!
Your pumpkin filled weekend sounds PERFECT!! And now I need to go try making some pear butter because I never have and your looks so good!
I love fruit butters! I would love to start each day with a spread of this over a delicious english muffin or bagel. Yay for all things pumpkin! I bought a few pumpkins this weekend and roasted a few too!
I love all sorts of fruit butters but never tried quince. I’m definitely intrigued!
I bet the smell wafting through was lovely!
Pinned.
Have a marvelous Monday!
Your pumpkin weekend was like my apple weekend. We did apple picking, baked apples and snacked on apples.
Love this pear butter.
I bet this makes your house smell amazing, right?!! I love that the slow cooker does all the work, too. I’m not sure I’ve ever come across quince, but it’s nice to have this recipe in my back pocket when I do.
Okay, you’ve convinced me…..I will make butter in a slow cooker!! Your weekend sounded amazing, btw!!
Wow… what an inspired idea! I need to go on a hunt for some quince (which I’ve only heard pronounced like “queen” on the east coast…not that it makes me an expert 🙂
I’ve never seen fresh quince – they’re so pretty! I need to find me an orchard or a legit natural food store to pick some up. I’ve only heard quince pronounced “kwince” – wince like your wincing.
My crockpot has never seen anything this glorious before. It 200% needs pear + quince + suuuuga all up in it. Glad you had a great weekend! I’m jelly of your punkin beer n mac experience! xo
Nicole — Totally smells amazing. I’m thinking about making it all fall and winter long to double as an air freshener. 😉
And I hope you can come across quince, because it’s so good!
This sounds absolutely delish! I actually just saw quince at Whole Foods last week and was dying to make them into something…now I know exactly what I’ll be making!
Fruit butter made in the slow cooker does sound crazy good. . I’m going to have to try this!! and I’ve never tried a quince but something tells me I need to try to get my hands on some soon. . and I hope you are able to find just the right Halloween costume for Avery . . and I applaud you for wanting to make her costume because the 1st Halloween is always so memorable! She’ll be adorable with whatever you dress her in 🙂 I bought a big fluffy baby chicken suit for my daughter and recycled it for my second child. but it was great b/c they’re not old enough to fight it and can’t take it off! 😛
Alllllll over this. I bet this makes the house smell incredible!!
I hope to try quince someday — this looks so delicious 🙂
I love quince! I have the hardest time finding them, but need to try and make this!
I haven’t tried a quince before, but now I want to make this butter!
This is the perfect fall spread. I want to smear it on everything. My DIY fall wreath is still sitting in my office unfinished.
I love pears and also love making homemade jams and jellies. Never thought to make a pear butter though, great idea!
I have never had a quince! But, this is making me eager to not only try one, but turn it in to butter and get to slathering!
I love fruit butters and this one sounds amazing! Just what I need to go with my morning toast!
As much as I love coming home to the smell of a delicious, already made dinner in the slow cooker, I do feel like this is maybe the best smelling thing ever. I adore quince! It’s quince like “queen” 🙂
Just beautiful Steph!!! Ah! I’ve never cooked with quinces (mostly as I haven’t been able to find them in good ol’ Aussieland) but I HAVE eaten various quince pastes and jams and they’re absolutely delicious with bread or cheese. Sticky, sweet fruity goodness! I love the idea of slow cooking this quince and pear butter into a thick, glorious caramelised butter. I will definitely try this asap (or just make pear butter, if I end up crying in the supermarket about the absence of quinces). Ha – I cannot wait to see what you create for Avery’s Halloween costume! xx
This sounds amazing! Especially letting it cook for 12 hours.. dang.
I say it with a ‘qu’ at the beginning, but now I’m worried that’s incorrect!
Funny story: we had a quince tree growing up in Western Washington. Buutttt…we didn’t know what it was, just assumed it was a pear. Needless to say they do NOT taste the same! (insert tongue out emoticon). I love the idea of fruit butters in the slow cooker though. If I only I still had quinces (rhymes with winces?) in the backyard!
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This is such a great idea Stephanie! I’ve never tried quince but this looks like a great place to start!
I am making this right now in my slow cooker! We have a quince tree and this time of year the race is on to get all of them turned into something edible. One suggestion I have is to amend your post to remind people with immersion blenders that you can do that instead of taking it all out, putting it in a food processor and then returning it to the slow cooker. My friend suggested this to me and I was like “ah-hah! you are so right!”. Second, I think the quince in these pictures are not ripe at all. I actually thought it was all pears until I looked more closely – I have never seen a green quince pictured in a recipe!
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sounds yummy– is yummy i have a 40 year old quince tree that now has given me hundreds of quince (qu like queen). have made membrillo (quince paste) now am making quince jelley with the juice form slow cooking and thank you as now have a quince butter recipe!!!!!
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I just tried this and boy is it good. I used the last of my neighbour’s wind fallen quinces that were nice and ripe as well as some old type of pear that generally has to be cooked before eating. I didn’t have the patience to grate it all as I don’t have a food processor but I did chop it up into small pieces then cook it on low overnight before pureeing and putting it back in the slow cooker with the top off.
I also just used vanilla essence as I didn’t have a vanilla bean on hand and wanted to make this recipe right away so went ahead with the substitutions.
It turned out thick, a lot redder in colour and beautifully delicious. Low and slow really is best 🙂
Hello, Moien, Bonjour!
I live in Luxembourg and my mother in law lives in France. She has giant, old quince tree in her garden and gave me some big beautiful fruit to take home. I was looking for something other than compote to make and came across this delicious recipe! Merci!
In France a quince is a “coing” pronounced “kwen”- (sort of).
Anyway, it is also tradition to put them around your house to make the house smell nice.
Encore, merci!
Christine, Bonjour! This is wonderful to read! Thank you so much. 🙂 I hope you enjoy the fruit butter as much as I do!
I LOVE this recipe! I’ve been doing it all through the pandemic. Besides vanilla, I’ve tried it with cinnamon and cardamom. I’m grateful I found this recipe and hope to continue doing it as long as quince, or membrillos, are in season. 🙂