Pear Quick Bread with Streusel Topping

843410000

Just like apples shouldn’t get all the crisp and crumble love, bananas shouldn’t get all the quick bread love. Pears are ready to step right up and show you just how tasty they can be. Have ripe pears? Make a Pear Ginger Crumble. Have overripe pears? Don’t throw them out! Make a Pear Bread! And, though the bread is awesome all by itself, totally make the streusel topping. SO GOOD.

This pear bread is brought to you by the rest of the pears I bought for the crumble. Even though we all like eating pears out of hand, no baked goods needed, we didn’t think about them while they got softer and softer. Which left me with a whole pile of overripe pears and a whole pile of baking to do! Luckily, I have a variety of different quick breads in my repertoire, so then the questions were yogurt/buttermilk/or sour cream, streusel or not, chop or puree, and what sort of sweetener.

When I made the Bourbon Pecan Banana Bread, I used sour cream. This time I had some buttermilk in the fridge, so buttermilk it was. Streusel makes a fun addition to the recipe so streusel was a yes. Chop and puree is the answer! And, as I mentioned in my Pear Crumble recipe, I’m trying to move away from granulated sugar while reducing sugar in general, so the answer there was a little maple syrup in the bread and a little coconut sugar in the streusel. What I ended up with is a bread that is soft, moist, full of pear flavor, and lightly sweetened. Just the thing to have with a cup of coffee in the morning. Or for a snack any time of the day.

Next time you have a few pears in the soft and squishy phase of life but before the too far gone phase, make a pear bread! A few minutes of your time and you’ll have a loaf or two to enjoy.

– Happy Eating, Annemarie

Pear Quick Bread with Streusel Topping

 

Print

Prep/Hold time

15 mins

Cook time

60 mins

Total time

1 hour 15 mins

 

What to do with those overripe pears sitting on your counter? Make an easy pear bread from them! Great for breakfast, for snacks, and it freezes well.

Author: Just a Little Bit of Bacon

Recipe type: Brunch

Cuisine: American

Serves: 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 3 medium pears, (1½ cups chopped pears)
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (I use King Arthur Flour white whole wheat)
• 1 cup white all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp table salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• ½ tsp powdered ginger
• ⅔ cup buttermilk
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla

Streusel Topping

• ⅓ cup whole wheat flour
• ½ cup pecans, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp coconut sugar, or light brown sugar
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp powdered ginger
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• ¼ tsp table salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside.
2. Peel pears. Chop the pears into ½ inch dice. Take ½ cup of the chopped pear and mash it well until it's basically pureed.
3. In a large bowl, mix together wheat flour, white flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in pears. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and combine with a large spatula until just mixed together.
5. Add all streusel ingredients to a bowl and mix with your fingers until until well combined and there is no dry flour left.
6. Using the spatula, scrape the pear batter into the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the streusel over the top, patting it down to push it into the batter a little. This will help it adhere to the bread.
7. Bake the bread for 45 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 325F and bake for 15 minutes more. Allow the bread to cool for 1 hour on a rack. Then run a butter knife around the edges and carefully take the bread out of the loaf pan.

Notes

You can make the streusel first and just put it in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

I used Green Anjou pears for this recipe. They are a mid-sized pear with a thin skin and sweet flesh.

To freeze, slice the bread and put it in a single layer on a tray lined with wax paper in the freezer. When frozen, transfer it to a resealable container.

3.5.3208

843410000