There’s no better way to enjoy fall and its cooler days than to whip up a delicious and healthy dish with apples or pears. Fresh harvest-season fruits scream that fall is here, and the holidays are just around the corner!
Here are a few recipes featuring these iconic fall fruits that may inspire autumn feelings and help you plan for the holiday season.
You’ll find cinnamon-scented desserts, jammy preserves, and a tasty soup that would make a nice, light meal to serve before or after days of indulgence.
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Types of apples and pears
The multitude of apple varieties to use in recipes is bounteous. Here’s a tongue-in-cheek, hard-hitting evaluation of apples from Apple Rankings, a website devoted to all kinds of apples.
🍎For apple desserts, I am partial to firm and crunchy favorites like honey crisp, pink lady, or even Granny Smith. The latter have more acid and may require that you add extra sweetener or sugar.
Traditional softer cooking apples, such as Jonathans, Cortlands, or Rome, are also good choices. Of course, you do not need apples that would be a delight to eat out of hand for recipes like apple butter.
🍐When it comes to pears, I have had the best success with Bartletts and Anjous, although other varieties would be fine. However, you may need to remove the peel from thick-skinned varieties like Comice.
If you have an abundance of pears or apples from your trees, use what nature has given you!
You could even use soft, canned pears mashed into a sauce-like consistency in certain recipes.
Speaking of which…
This simple quick bread makes the most of both fruits! Chunks of chopped apple are delicious in cinnamon-rich slices that are perfect for a quick breakfast. It’s also great for afternoon snack with a mug of tea or coffee.
Recently, ground cinnamon has been in the news for having elevated amounts of lead. This is concerning, especially for children!
Consumer Reports testing noted exceptionally low lead levels in 365 Organic Whole Foods Market and (affiliate link) Morton and Bassett San Francisco cinnamon.
One of the most popular recipes on the blog, this scrumptious pear butter is easy-peasy (um, peary). No need to skin the pears, especially if they are thin-skinned Barletts.
When you blitz the pears with a (affiliate link) blender (handheld or container-style) after a few hours in the (affiliate link) slow cooker, the peel disappears into the thick spicy spread leaving you with extra nutrition like fiber and antioxidants!
If you do like to peel your pears or apples, you'll want a (affiliate link) paring knife that can go in the dishwasher!
Use your (affiliate link) Instant Pot to make short work of cooking up some thick, brown apple butter. The recipe includes fresh ginger to increase the anti-inflammatory goodness of the spread.
Of course, apples already have anti-inflammatory benefits (you know what the doctor said about an apple a day). So, the butter will be tasty and nutritious if you would rather leave it out.
What would a list of apple recipes be without dessert? Your loved ones will adore the brown sugar and nut topping on these sweet apples and you'll love the flexibility of the recipe.
Make two to four servings in individual (affiliate link) ramekins, or double the recipe for crowd and bake it in a (affiliate link) casserole dish.
This is an easy and fun soup to serve around Halloween, or it’s a great way to use up an extra can of pumpkin puree after Thanksgiving!
Made with a nice mix of pantry and fridge staples, it’s a good back-pocket recipe for those spare days before you can get to the grocery store. It’s also a satisfying low-calorie soup that can help with weight management.
Although this is not truly breakfast, there's no reason you couldn't top this apple dessert with a scoop of plain Greek yogurt (for protein) and enjoy it in the morning!
The crunchy topping has granola in it. Simple and easy prep!
This holiday chutney in the style of the famous Major Grey’s concoction makes a marvelous homemade food gift for your friends and neighbors (especially if you have extra pears).
Dried pears and fresh cranberries, the main ingredients, are jazzed up with ginger, star anise, chiles, cinnamon, and cloves. It plays well with a holiday main course such as roast turkey or spiral sliced ham!
It looks beautiful in these (affiliate link) quilted four-ounce jars. You could use this excellent canning (affiliate link) funnel to pack them!
Word to the wise cook: Feel free to substitute pears for apples in desserts that feature a bottom layer of fruit with a mouthwatering crumble or crisp topping.
Nutrition Benefits: Apples and Pears
Most of us know that these two fruits have exceptional health benefits. But is there much nutritional difference between them?
The main differences are that pears have more fiber and slightly more vitamin K, although neither fruit is particularly rich in this vitamin. The insoluble fiber in both fruits helps with cholesterol and gut health.
Apples offer a little more potassium than pears and, in general, they have a couple more grams of sugar (fructose) for the same size serving. Of course, this can depend on the ripeness and variety of the apple.
They both offer a minimal amount of vitamin C, often touted for its antioxidant activity. However, the real antioxidant story of apples and pears is found in their phytochemicals, which are especially abundant in their peels.
⚕️Anti-inflammatory Apples and Pears
Apples are the largest source of health-promoting antioxidant phenolics for most people in the U.S. Apples and pears are important sources of nutrition for most people because they are eaten frequently, sometimes daily.
These popular fruits contain many beneficial phytochemicals, such as quercetin, an anti-inflammatory and antiviral flavonoid pigment found in apple peels. It can reduce swelling and inhibit cancer cells. It may also improve lung disease in women.
Apples and pears are both good sources of quercetin and related phytonutrients. They also contain chlorogenic acid, a health-promoting phenolic often associated with coffee. This anti-inflammatory chemical has shown positive effects on blood sugar and weight management.
The bottom line is that either fruit is a good nutritional choice. especially if you eat one or the other every day.
To get the most health benefits from them, it's best to leave their skins on. In the recipes on my blog, the peels are left intact for more nutrition benefits and to save time! ⏲️
Ruth Hall
Wow! What a lot of delicious sounding recipes!!