Last week some of my good friends brought me over a huge back of freshly-picked pears and apples. And as I was trying to plan how to put them to use over the next week, the idea of caramel pears came to mind. And then better — caramel pear cookies!
I’m always looking for an excuse to pick up a bag of those adorable little caramel bits at the grocery store, so was more than happy to give the recipe idea a try. Went with a cinnamon-y dough, and then just finely diced the pear so that there could be some nice little fruit chunks in there. And oh my goodness. They turned out A-MAZING. Seriously, I was expecting them to be tasty, but they were go-back-for-seconds-and-thirds-and-(ok-admit-it)-fourths crazy good. I actually ended up making two batches of them last weekend, so took them to share with friends and family and neighbors, and everyone gave them rave reviews.
Especially while it’s fresh pear season, I highly recommend giving these caramel pear cookies a try!
Caramel Pear Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 24-30 cookies 1x
Description
These yummy cookies overflow with caramel and fresh pears – delicious!
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 12 Tbsp. (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until just warm
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cup caramel bits
- 1 pear, finely diced (about 1 cup)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Use an electric mixer to cream together butter and sugars until well blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add in the dry ingredient mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Carefully stir in the caramel bits and diced pears until combined.
- Use a small cookie scoop or a spoon to form the dough into tablespoon-fulls. Place on a cookie sheet at least 2.5 inches apart, and then dot on top with a few additional caramel bits. Bake cookies until the outer edges are golden and begin to slightly harden, about 15 minutes. Remove and let the cookies cool on the baking sheets.
Well I messed up and used a food processor to shred my pears. I added the pears juice and all…anyway it made a lovely cake. I also used dairy free chocolate chips
Thanks for the tip to use less sugar Tania. I cut both the white and brown sugar in half and I found that to be sweet enough to still taste the pear.
I tried this for the first time last night and didn’t use the Carmel cause it was super late and I didn’t feel like making it. So I just made them a spice pear cookie and my husband loved it and his work loved it to a the whole plate was gone by 930 in the morning! Thank you!
Could I use pear sauce instead of diced pears?
these were horrible, they were very oily,too much butter? and even after 19 minutes still came out very thin and doughy, i don’t know how it got 4.5 stars
Susan from Eugene Oregon
my daughter cooks for the school. she was asking if canned pears drained well would work since we dont have access to raw pears has anyone tried using canned
Thank you for this delicious recipe. We found that pecans were a tasty addition.
Ali, I haven’t tried the Carmel pear cookies yet, but can you freeze them? I’m planning a party and have too much to do right before. If not, how long will they stay fresh in a Tupperware container?
These cookies were delicious. Not too crispy and not too doughy. I made them with butterscotch pieces instead of caramel because I had those already. And I am going to make them again today with white chocolate chips. The pieces of pear in the cookie taste great!