If you saw the apple butter pie or plum butter posts, you probably are getting the message: fruit butters are easy to make even if you’re super busy. I was at the grocery store the other day and saw that pears were on sale. So clearly I was required by law to buy them. So when I got home and realized how much other work I had to do, I was kind of pissed at myself. I mean, seriously. Like I don’t have enough going on, now I have several pounds of additional produce on my hands. Maybe it’s not normal for groceries to make you angry like that, huh? Honestly, it was pretty easy to figure out what to do with the pears. Pear butter! I didn’t want to go with traditional spicy pear butter though since I already had spiced apple butter in the pantry. So instead I went warm with the Vanilla-Bourbon combo. I’m not much of a bourbon girl, but this pear butter might just have convinced me otherwise!
I could have done this whole recipe in the crock pot, like I did with the plum butter. But I had the time to watch the pear butter on the stove so I figured I’d dirty a smaller pot. And cooking it on the stove meant I was ready to can it that same night. A dozen Christmas gifts taken care of at once!
Vanilla-Bourbon Pear Butter
- 3-4 pounds pears
- 1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar (to taste)
- 1/2 cup bourbon
- 1/8 cup vanilla (the good stuff)
Cook your pears until they are really tender. I cooked mine in the crock pot while I was at work and they were falling to pieces by the time I got home. Luscious.
Run the pears through your food mill. I used the medium-sized disc for this butter because I wanted a little graininess. 
Now add the other ingredients and cook over low to medium-low heat until the fruit butter is the consistency you prefer.
Man, that’s good.
If you are going to eat or use all of it soon, then you’re done! Otherwise, can in a water-bath canner for 15 minutes.
Et voilà!
Your recipe has no lemon juice, or other acidic juice in the recipe. I have canned before, but not without either lemon juice, or pectin. I was just curious about this. Your recipe sounds delicious!
I knew that this would all be used fairly quickly so I felt comfortable water-bath canning. I wish I’d thought to have checked the pH. I guess I’ll have to make it again and check!
The pH of most alcohols is fairly low though, so the bourbon may have brought the pH down low enough to safely water-bath can. If you’re uncomfortable water-bath canning this, there’s no reason not to pressure can it. This is something mushy so you don’t have to worry about over-processing it and losing the texture.