by Wendy Akin
These make a wonderful, healthy candy-like snack.
Peel pears, quarter and remove cores, you need big pieces.
Prepare syrup with
2 cups honey
2 cups water
1 - 2" stick of cinnamon
Bring the syrup to a boil, add the pears and cook carefully until the pears are just becoming translucent around the edges. Remove the pears from the syrup with a slotted spoon and let drain over a bowl. You can add any drained syrup back to the pot and continue cooking pears, adding a bit of water as the syrup evaporates. (I have done this in a huge pot with ½ gallon of honey and ½ gallon of water to process a bushel of pears. Reduce the proportion of cinnamon sticks.)
Let the pears drain well and then load them into a dehydrator. Dehydrate for just a few hours or until the pears are about ½ size and quite firm but not hard or dry. Let the pears cool then pack into plastic freezer bags. These are not completely dried so it’s best to keep them in the refrigerator.
I once made a pie with these pears, cut up to ½ inch pieces. It was nearly too rich to eat! It would have been better with the addition of tart raisins or perhaps some pre-cooked cranberries to cut the sweetness. Or, mix in a cup of broken walnuts, spread only 1/2inch thick in a tart shell and make the servings very small.