my discovery of Bread: Pear Bread

Ones a year we can buy pears where we live in the North of Thailand. I had a picture in my head of a French tarte tatin aux poires. But, we left for a few days and the pears had to wait in the refrigerator. When we came back I totally forgot about the pears. Until, as usual on Fridays, I visited Susan's Yeast Spotting; the showcase of all kinds of delicious and beautiful breads. And there I saw the really cute loaves with pears, made by Heather of Heathers Sweets and Treats.

Heather used Bartlett pears, one big pear for one loaf but my Asian pears are small. I decided to make one loaf with two small pears. At the time it seemed a good idea, because I usually make one loaf trying out a new recipe. If you want to make these loafs: go for both of them. They are really delicious.

Tonight two Thai friends came for dinner. Both of them are teachers in our village. One of them was our colleague. She's going to the USA to become an Au-pair. We all looked at the information the agency gave her and the program they provide for them. We will miss her dearly, but she really loves to see more of the world, meet other people and experience their cultures and she loves children.

We had a nice meal with Spaghetti Bologna and Parmesan cheese; they loved it. Since I had no baguette left in the freezer I decided to serve them the freshly baked Pear Bread. Luckily I took a photo of the bread before they arrived and just in time I took another photo of the last slice before it was all gone.

This Pear Bread will be back next year; it is delicious. The bread has a soft crust with a nice crumb with bits of pear and a sweet smell of pear and honey. Still it's not sweet bread.

This is what I used for 1 loaf:

2 small pears

59 gr water

1 teaspoons instant yeast

21 gr honey

1 egg

64 gr whole wheat flour

187 gr all-purpose flour

6 gr kosher salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

cornmeal for dusting baking stone or parchment paper

This is what I did:

Cut up the two pears into small chunks. Put 2/3 of the chunks in the kitchen machine and puree them. The remaining 1/3 of the chunks you add later on to the dough.

In a mixing bowl, mix together flour, salt, pepper, and yeast. Add the honey, pureed pears and eggs. Add water and mix until all ingredients are combined. You want firm dough; it should be tacky but not sticky.

Place it onto a floured work counter. Place pear chunks on the dough and mix them in by hand. Push the pieces in the dough when they fall out.

Transfer to a slightly oiled container, cover with plastic and leave to ferment for 2 hours.

Place the dough on a floured work counter, press the air out and pre shape into a boule. Make a hole in the middle and gently make the hole bigger until the hole is about 5-6 cm.