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!!