Warmly spiced and lightly sweet, this easy pear butter is perfect on biscuits, dinner rolls, or pancakes!

You’re going to love this delicious pear butter, whether you make it in your Instant Pot, slow cooker, or on the stove top!

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I have long considered myself a keeper of the seasons. That’s why every fall, I launch into full apple mode and pear mode before eventually drifting into pumpkin mode.

Fruit butters are something I’ve been making for several years now as a way to use up the season’s bounty.

I initially started with slow cooker apple butter, then moved on to Instant Pot apple butter. I’ve also made pumpkin butter in the Instant Pot!

So this year, as I’ve been working my way through about 12 pounds of fresh pears, I decided to make old-fashioned pear butter!

It’s safe to say I’m a sucker for a good fruit butter recipe, and this version was the perfect mix of sweetness and warming spices.

You’re going to love this easy and delicious pear butter recipe–it’s positively wonderful.

More Delicious Ways to Use Fresh Pears:

• Best Ever Pear Bread
• Easy Pear Jam
• Cake Mix Pear Bundt Cake
• Pear Banana Cake
• Pear Streusel Muffins
• Pear Cobbler
• Old-Fashioned Pear Cake
• Pear and Apple Sauce
• Fresh Pear Coffee Cake

Easy Homemade Pear Butter

You’re going to love this homemade pear butter! It’s one of those versatile spreads that can be used for so many things, and it’s a great way to use up fresh fruit before it goes bad.

Spread it on your freshly baked biscuits or dinner rolls.

Add a dollop to pancakes and waffles.

I also like to stir it into a warm bowl of oatmeal or a cold cup of yogurt.

It can be a simple substitute for apple butter in baked goods, such as in apple butter bread, apple butter snickerdoodles, or apple butter cake.

No matter how you choose to enjoy it, I feel confident that you will indeed enjoy it!

Sweet ripe pears cook with brown sugar and warm spices, plus a little bit of lemon juice, which really brightens the flavors (so don’t skip it!).

Want a version that uses both pears and apples? Try my apple pear butter recipe!

How to Make Pear Butter

Whether you’re using up bounty from your pear tree or putting grocery store pears to use, it’s really easy to make this delicious spread.

I’m including instructions for various cooking methods, too–so whether you make Instant Pot pear butter, prepare it in your slow cooker, or cook it on the stove top, you’re good to go!

Ingredients You’ll Need:

• Fresh pears
• Brown sugar
• Water
• Lemon juice
• Ground cinnamon
• Ground nutmeg
• Ground allspice
• Ground ginger
• Ground cloves
• Ground cardamom (optional)

How to Make this Homemade Pear Butter Recipe:

(Full printable recipe is available below)

Peel, core, and dice the pears. First, you’ll peel, core, and chop up the pears. If your pears are nice and ripe, this should be a breeze to do.

You’ll want to be sure your pears are ripe. I used Bartlett pears, which you can see are different colors depending on their ripeness.

The golden-yellow pears are perfect–soft enough that they have a little give to them when pressed.

The brighter green pears are still somewhat hard and not yet as sweet. Go for the yellow ones!

Combine all ingredients. Next, you’ll combine all of the ingredients together in your cooking pot–whether that’s the insert pot of your Instant Pot, your Crock Pot, or in a medium saucepan on the stove.

Give everything a good stir to coat.

Cook. Last, you’ll cook the mixture until the liquid starts to reduce and the mixture begins to thicken (specific instructions for each cooking method are given below).

The cooking time will be different for slow cooker pear butter, stove top pear butter, or Instant Pot pear butter, but those are all listed in the recipe card below.

You can see what the pears look like after cooking in the Instant Pot below.

Puree. Use an immersion blender to puree the mixture if desired (some people prefer to use a food mill).

You can also use a potato masher if you prefer it to be a little chunky.

If needed, cook it a little longer to allow some liquid to evaporate until it reaches your desired consistency.

Transfer to jars and let cool. I typically keep jars of pear butter in my refrigerator or freezer (make sure you have freezer-safe jars if you go that route).

Wipe the rims of the jars before placing the lids on them.

This is a delicious pear butter recipe for canning–simply follow instructions for water bath canning if you’d like to make it shelf-stable.

We love to serve this pear butter on homemade dinner rolls, toasted English muffins, freshly baked homemade biscuits, pancakes, and more!

Notes and Adaptations:

• If you have ground cardamom on hand, it makes a really nice addition. However, I know it’s a less-common spice, so feel free to omit it if you don’t have it (it won’t make or break your pear butter!).
• You can also play around with the amount of sugar, depending on how ripe your pears are. If you have overripe pears, you could probably cut back a tad on the brown sugar.
• I used Bartlett pears, but you can use Asian pears, Bosc pears, or D’Anjou pears if preferred.
• Don’t want to go through the process of using a water bath canner? You can store pear butter in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If you’re using freezer-safe jars, you can also freeze it. Just be sure to leave enough head space for expansion, and let the pear butter cool to room temperature before transferring to the fridge or freezer.