These honey cinnamon pears are an ideal way to preserve fresh pears for winter. The honey and cinnamon enhances the pears, without detracting from their inherent goodness.
This post is sponsored by Ball® Fresh Preserving Products by Newell Brands.
Last month, I teamed up with my friends at Ball®Fresh Preserving Products by Newell Brands to share their recipe for Mixed Berry Jam and the Jammy Baked Oatmeal that I made with it. This month, we’re talking honey cinnamon pears.
Honey Cinnamon Pears, to be precise. In this recipe, quartered pears are briefly simmered in a syrup made from apple juice and honey before being packed into Ball® Pint Jars with a cinnamon stick, topped with the syrup, and processed in a boiling water bath. It’s a really easy and approachable recipe (no peeling!) that produces perfectly sweet pears kissed with a hint of cinnamon.
To make these pears, start by getting your jars warming in the canning pot (for this project, I used the Ball® Sharing Jars). Fit your canning pot with a rack, place the jars on top and fill both the jars and the pot halfway with water. Bring it to a simmer over low heat and keep it around 180F until you are ready to fill the jars. Wash lids and rings in hot, soapy water and set them aside.
Once your canning gear is all set, you turn your attention to the pears. Wash them well (make sure to remove any stickers!), cut them into quarters, and cut away the cores.
As you work, place the cut pears into a bowl of acidulated water (that’s a fancy word for water spiked with either lemon juice or Fruit Fresh) to prevent the pears from browning.
Once the pears are prepped, make the syrup. Combine water, apple juice, and honey in a large saucepan (you want to use something large enough to eventually hold all the pears.
When the syrup comes to a simmer, add the pears to the pot and let them stay in the syrup just until they’re heated through (too much time in the syrup will lead them to overcook and fall apart, so stay attentive).
As soon as the pears are warm, it’s time to fill the jars. Remove a single jar from the canning pot and place it on a folded towel or cutting board. Place a cinnamon stick in the bottom of the jar and funnel the warm pear quarters into the jars. Use a chopstick to help settle them into place (I found that I could get 6-7 pear quarters into each jar).
Top the pears with the syrup and remove any trapped air bubbles, taking care to maintain a headspace of 1/2 inch. Wipe the rim of the jar, place a lid on top, secure it with a ring (finger tip tight, please), get that jar in the canner, and repeat with the next jar.
These honey cinnamon pears are good to eat with yogurt or cottage cheese. You can warm them and serve them over pancakes or waffles. Or you could turn them into sorbet. Check back tomorrow to learn how to do just that!
Honey Cinnamon Pears from Ball® Fresh Preserving Products
Ingredients
- 6 pounds mixed green and red pears, unpeeled, quartered and cored
- 3 tablespoons Fruit Fresh or lemon juice
- 3 cups water
- 2 cups unsweetened apple juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 cup honey
- 7 cinnamon sticks
Instructions
- Prepare boiling water canner. Heat 7 pint jars in simmering water until ready to use, do not boil. Wash lids in warm soapy water and set aside with bands.
- Combine Fruit Fresh or lemon juice in a bowl with enough water to cover pear quarters; let soak until syrup is simmering.
- Combine water, apple juice, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and honey in a 4 quart saucepan set over medium heat. Bring to a simmer.
- Add pears to honey syrup and stir gently until heated through.
- Place one cinnamon stick into a jar; pack hot pears in jar leaving a ½ inch headspace. Ladle hot syrup over pears, leaving a ½ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rim. Center lid on jar and apply band, adjust to fingertip tight. Place jar in boiling water canner. Repeat until all jars are filled.
- Process jars 20 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Turn off heat, remove lid, let jars stand 5 minutes. Remove jars and cool 12-24 hours. Check lids for seal, they should not flex when center is pressed.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Newell Brands as part of a compensated partnership. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.
I would suggest making the syrup first, even on a previous day. Otherwise your pears are hanging around and can get brown, even in acidulated water.
The recipe looks great — will make these in the fall!
Why should you not boil the jars before packing them? Just curious!
You don’t need to sterilize them prior to canning, because they get fully sterilized during the canning process.
Hi Marisa – does 6 pounds mean you take 6 pounds of pears, and quart them afterwards, or does it mean you take pears, quarter them and then weight out 6 pounds….? Sorry if I didn’t get it right…
Thank you for the lovely recipe.
You are start with 6 pounds. When a recipe says, “6 pounds mixed green and red pears, unpeeled, quartered and cored” it is telling you to measure out that amount of fruit and then proceed with breaking it down. If the recipe wanted you to prep the fruit and then measure it out, it would read, “6 pounds quartered and cored mixed green and red pears.”
Thank you!
Its not that easy if english is not your first language to tell the difference…
Ah, I understand!
hello marissa. Could I use Apple cider instead of juice in this recipe?
Sure.
Do you think it would be possible to replace some or all of the honey with pure maple syrup in this recipe?
I wouldn’t do that. Maple syrup is lower in acid than honey and so could potentially create something unsafe.
Have you tried this recipe with Asian pears?
Asian pears are low in acid and so aren’t safe or appropriate for this recipe.
in water bath canning you do need to sterilize jar,s
in a pressure canner you do not.
Will this recipe work with sand pears?
I don’t know what the acid content of sand pears is like, so I really can’t say. So sorry!
Do you think this could be made with a sugar syrup (1:1 simple syrup) instead of the honey? (I have 30 lbs of pears to process and honey can be pricey). Thanks! Your site is invaluable.
Yes. Pick your thickness from this chart. https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_02/syrups.html
Awesome, thanks for the reference!
Hi! I made this recipe last year and we LOVED it. This year, I’m not sure I’ll be able to get any local pears (not a lot available in our region and a Spring freeze hurt a lot of crops) and while I could make them with store bought pears, I find the store bought just don’t have the great flavor of local/fresh. I will, however, have an abundance of fresh peaches. Can this recipe be made with yellow peaches? Understandably peaches have a stronger flavor than pears but I’m looking for canned peach variations and it made me think of this recipe.
Yes. You could certainly make this recipe using peaches.
This seems like a silly question… but do you dump the pears WITH the fruit fresh water into the honey juice syrup? Or do you strain them first?
You strain the peaches out of the fruit fresh water. It’s just to prevent them from browning.
Hi there! I was wondering does this work for most fruits (apples, berries, & etc) or do you recommend sticking to just pears for this and how long are they shelf stable? I’m looking to stock up on fruits for winter and not use a ton of sugar.
This particular approach works for soft fruit like pears and peaches. Apples need a little more preparation before canning. If you want to do more fruit, I’d suggest reading through this page: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can2_fruit.html
Hello! What do you do if you just got back from the store and realized you forgot the apple juice? Is there a homemade rescue for that? Thanks so much!
You could always opt for a light syrup rather than the apple juice.
Can this be made with just apple juice, water and lemon juice, no honey or sugar? Could it also be made with apple juice, water, lemon juice and just 1/4 cup of honey? Not sure if either of those would give the proper acidity, but we need to go easy on the honey and I don’t want to add sugar. Thank you
You could do it with just apple juice and lemon juice if you’re trying to avoid added sweeteners. That would have plenty of acid.
if asion pears are low in acid, how would one peserve them. thanks. Jay
They are best dehydrated or cooked into sauce and turned into fruit leather.
I weighed my fruit, and used correct measuring cups for the syrup. I had 6 quarts of pears, not three. Did anyone else have this problem? By the way I don’t see this as a big deal, I just made another batch of syrup. I can’t wait to open these, the smell was divine! Thanks for a great recipe.
Yikes, that’s very surprising! Sorry to hear that the yield was so off for you.
What size jars did you use? Wanting to make sure I process for the correct amount of time for pints and quarts. Thanks!
I used pint jars for this preserve.
I cooked and cooked and cooked the syrup but I couldn’t get it to thicken into a “syrup: consistency. It tastes great but it’s just very thin. Please help
Amanda, I think you got too hung up on the word syrup. The medium in which fruit is canned is almost always called syrup, no matter it’s consistency. This syrup should be quite watery so as not to overpower the flavor of the pears. You are only supposed to bring it to a boil. I’m sorry that that was confusing for you.
This is a family favorite and my youngest sons favorite college treat. Thank you!
I’m so happy you like it!
Made this recipe as written and it made 7 pints jars, with pears leftover and no syrup so processed one jar with boiled apple cider with the pears… I hope I did this right!?
I also did this recipe with peaches and it was 7 pints.
I’m a newbie and a little nervous about doing things safely!
The yield is 6 or 7 pints, so you are right on the nose.
Are the pears unripened green or should they sit on the counter for a while to ripen?
The pears I used were ripe. They just happened to be a variety that remained green once ripe.
Why can’t you cook the pears in the apple juice and honey mixture , check for firmness and ready to put in sterile jars , after you sterile the jars fill with pears and apple juice and honey syrup and leave 1/2 head room in top of jar place sterile seal lid on tight jar ring on the jar firmly let jars cool and check that they seal properly.
You could do that. It just wasn’t what this particular recipe instructed.
Could I use unsweetened white grape juice instead of apple juice?
Thanks!
Yes!
I am getting ready to make this tmw. I was just curious why you don’t peep the pears
Why peel the pears if you don’t have to? You certainly can if you want, but most pears have such thin skin that it isn’t a textural issue, at least for me.
I took lemon juice and soaked pears in that to keep from browning, i then added honey and pumpkin pie spice and cooked pears a little, whats the safest way way to can this? Healthier option dont know if i should use a canner on this or hot water bath.. Thanks
You could pack them in apple juice and process in a water bath as this recipe indicates.