These easy stewed pears infused with cinnamon & vanilla are soft, juicy, fragrant & just so delicious. Perfect for breakfast, as a healthier dessert or anytime you feel like. You really don't need an excuse to enjoy them!
This super simple stewed pears recipe is perfect during autumn and winter months when we all tend to crave foods that give us that warm and cosy feeling.
Much quicker to make than fancy poached pears, stewed pears are very similar yet instead of being left whole, they're usually cut into chunks or quarters which substantially shortens their cooking time.
As much as I do love poached pears, more often than not, their stewed counterparts are much more practical and have many more uses rather than just beautifully looking dessert!
Make sure to also try my Easy Stewed Rhubarb recipe!
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✔️ Why should you try this recipe?
- Easy to make
- Ready in minutes
- Perfect way of using up pears from your fruit bowl
- Extremely versatile
- Really easy to adapt using spices and flavourings you like
- Meal prep friendly
- Kids friendly
🥘 Ingredients & substitutions
Pears - Use any pears you like. The ones I tend to have in my fruit bowl are Conference Pears but Comice, Williams (or Bartlett in the US & Canada), or any others will do just fine.
You will want your pears to be just ripe but not too much as overripe pears will go mushy and fall apart.
Underripe pears, on the other hand, are not as sweet and will take substantially longer to cook.
Aim for sweet spot somewhere in between the two extremes and you are onto a winner!
Sweetener - I decided to use brown sugar but any sugar will do. I chose sugar as it's an ingredient most of us have in our kitchens.
You could also use maple, agave syrup or honey (if not vegan).
The amount is totally up to you. I went for 2 tablespoon (25g) of brown sugar and found it plenty sweet but feel free to adjust the sweetness of your poaching syrup according with your taste.
Cinnamon Stick(s) - I would suggest using the actual cinnamon stick as opposed to ground spice although both will work.
If using ground cinnamon start with ½ teaspoon and increase the amount from there if needed.
Vanilla Bean - Nothing beats fresh vanilla to infuse the liquid. I used half of a pod which I then split in half (lengthwise) and scraped the seeds out of (love the look of vanilla specs on stewed pears).
In absence of vanilla bean feel free to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to your cooking liquid instead.
Lemon Juice- I used a squeeze or two of lemon juice over peeled pears to keep them from browning. Lemon juice also adds a touch of acidity to otherwise super sweet dish.
Water - I use water as a base for my poaching liquid to keep it simple and let cinnamon and vanilla shine but you could use orange juice or even wine instead if you wanted to.
📖 Variations
I focused on two flavours in my stewed pears recipe - cinnamon and vanilla.
There are, however, lots of other delicious flavour options you could try.
- Feel free to add other spices to your poaching liquid - star anise will work beautifully here but you could be a bit braver and try adding cloves or even allspice for that wintery, festive vibe.
- Swap water for white, red or mulled wine. You could also use orange juice to stew your pears in.
- For a bit of spice try adding roughly chopped ginger. If you keep it fairly large it will only gently infuse your cooking liquid but if you're after a proper kick, then grating your ginger would be the way to go.
- Consider adding large chunks of orange or lemon zest in your cooking liquid.
💭 Pro Tips
- Use pears that are neither too ripe nor underripe. You're after something in between.
- Bring your poaching liquid to gentle simmer to ensure that sugar has completely dissolved before you add the pears.
- When coring pears ensure you get rid of the strings that go through it from its stem as they tend to discolour during stewing and won't look too nice.
- Feel free to cut the pears any way you like. Chunks might be better if you want to serve these to your kids.
- You might need to adjust the amount of cooking liquid depending on the size of the saucepan and amount of pears. You want them to be almost covered.
- I like to cover my pan with the lid for the first few minutes of cooking to help the liquid to get back to gentle simmer.
- Don't waste cooking liquid, it's delicious. Drizzle it as is or reduce it to thicker, more syrupy consistency. You can also diluted with some water as you would cordial for a refreshing drink.
🥡 Storing
I like to keep my stewed pears in their cooking liquid in the fridge.
They should last 3-5 days.
❄️ Freezing
Stewed pears can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Make sure they're completely cooled and freeze in portions in the freezer safe container.
Defrost in the fridge overnight and serve cold or gently warmed.
Depending how soft they were before freezing, defrosted stewed pears might get a bit mushy upon defrosting.
🍴 Serving suggestions
These stewed pears are absolutely gorgeous on their own but they also make most amazing breakfast with some yogurt and granola or with creamy porridge.
If you'd like you could also serve them with these vegan buckwheat pancakes, crepes, fluffy vegan buttermilk pancakes or even waffles.
When it comes to dessert options, serve them with your favourite vegan ice cream or even on a side of cakes and over cheesecakes. Dreamy!
❓ FAQs
Stewing time will depend on how ripe your pears are. The riper the pears the less time they take. I stewed mine for just under 10 minutes.
The easiest way to check would be to use a small knife. It should go into the thickest part of pear nice and easy.
I think it depends on your personal preference. Personally, I'm not a fan of skin on conference pears I used here so I would always peel them. The skin, however, will soften as pears cook so you can leave it on if you want to.
🔪 How to make stewed pears?
Ingredient quantities & detailed instructions to be found in recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Start by splitting the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scraping out the seeds. I used half of the bean in this recipe but feel free to use the whole one.
Add water, sugar, cinnamon sticks and vanilla bean with seeds into a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer ensuring that sugar has fully dissolved.
In the meantime, peel, quarter and core the pears sprinkling them with some lemon juice to prevent them from browning too much.
Once sugar has dissolved, add prepared pears into the pan making sure they are mostly covered with cooking liquid (you might need to add a touch more water depending on the amount of pears and the size of your saucepan).
Stew pears for anything between 5-15 minutes depending on their ripeness. The riper they are the shorter stewing time. I stewed mine for just under 10 minutes.
Check the pears for doneness by piercing them gently with a knife. If knife goes in easily and without much resistance, the pears are done.
Serve and enjoy!
Have you tried my Stewed Pears Recipe?
Please consider giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in recipe card below and share your views or tips in the comments.
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📋 Recipe
Stewed Pears with Cinnamon & Vanilla
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 ripe pears peeled and cored, cut into quarters or chunks
- 250 ml water see notes
- 25 g brown sugar see notes
- 2 small cinnamon sticks or ½-1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- ½ vanilla bean split open and seeds scraped out and added as well
- ½ lemon (juice of) to sprinkle over peeled and cut pear slices
Instructions
- Start by splitting the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scraping out the seeds. I used half of the bean in this recipe but feel free to use the whole one.
- Add water, sugar, cinnamon sticks and vanilla bean with seeds into a medium saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer ensuring that sugar has fully dissolved.
- In the meantime, peel, quarter and core the pears sprinkling them with some lemon juice to prevent them from browning too much.
- Once sugar has dissolved, add prepared pears into the pan making sure they are mostly covered with cooking liquid (you might need to add a touch more water depending on the amount of pears and the size of your saucepan).
- Stew pears for anything between 5-15 minutes depending on their ripeness. The riper they are the shorter stewing time. I stewed mine for just under 10 minutes.
- Check the pears for doneness by piercing them gently with a knife. If the knife goes in easily and without much resistance, the pears are done.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Nutritional information is approximate and per serving based on 4 servings. It should be treated as a rough guideline only.
- Water can be substituted with juice or even wine.
- Any type of sugar will be fine. You can also use agave syrup, maple syrup or honey (if not vegan).
- Store in the fridge for 3-5 days.
- Freeze in portion for up to 3 months. Defrosted stewed pears might be slightly mushy depending on how soft they were before freezing.
- Use pears that are neither too ripe nor underripe. You're after something in between.
- Bring your poaching liquid to gentle simmer to ensure that sugar has completely dissolved before you add the pears.
- When coring pears ensure you get rid of the strings that go through it from its stem as they tend to discolour during stewing and won't look too nice.
- Feel free to cut the pears any way you like. Chunks might be better if you want to serve these to your kids.
- You might need to adjust the amount of cooking liquid depending on the size of the saucepan and amount of pears. You want them to be almost covered.
- I like to cover my pan with the lid for the first few minutes of cooking to help the liquid to get back to gentle simmer.
- Don't waste cooking liquid, it's delicious. Drizzle it as is or reduce it to thicker, more syrupy consistency. You can also diluted with some water as you would cordial for a refreshing drink.
Nutrition
Please leave a comment & rating if you've made my recipe! Feel free to ask questions too, I reply to all!