Pears are my favorite dehydrated fruit because they are sweet, crisp and a bit less chewy than dried apples. Pears are also super easy to prepared for drying, which is another big plus for me. Once the pears are ripe, I give them a good rinse under warm water. It doesn’t bother me if they have some skin scaring but I do compost (or give to the chickens) the overly ripe ones and any that are extremelly bug infested.
I start by getting my dehydrator trays ready, a compost bucket, cutting board and a sharp knife. You could also use a mandolin for thin, even slices but I prefer doing it by hand because of the way I de-core the centre and there is less equipment to clean up afterwards.
I begin by cutting off the stem end and composting it. Then I make thin 1/8 inch round slices all the way along until I reach the core. At that point, I will slice off about a 1/2 inch portion of the pear which includes the seed pocket. I continue slicing rings of pear until I reach the end.
After laying out the 1/8 inch thick pear rings evenly on the dehydrator sheet, I take the thick slab and cross-hatch it then discard the centre seed block. The useable chunks of pear, can be added to our morning oatmeal, become part of our lunch salad or mixed with a bit of sugar & berries for a pear crisp. Pear crisp is easy to prepare now, and then frozen for a future “freezer to oven” bubbly dessert.
Make sure that you preserve some pears this summer!
Pear Crisp
- 4c. pear chunks (plus berries if desired)
- 1/2c. sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla … all tossed together
- mix into a crumble … 1/2c. rolled oats
- 1/2c. flour
- 1/2c. sugar
- 1/2c. butter plus a pinch of baking soda
- sprinkle crumble on top of pears and bake at 350F 15 minutes