Pear and Ginger Bread

We love pears—we bake ’em, poach ’em, butter and maple syrup ’em and love to put them in bread.   This couldn’t be any easier and we use fresh pears (either raw or cooked) or, in a pinch in the middle of winter, canned pears will do.
Usually, we will make this recipe into three mini loaf pans and this bread is delicious on its own or topped with cream cheese (and you may even want to add cinnamon or honey or nuts to the cream cheese to make it even more delicious!)
 INGREDIENTS
2 or 3 fresh pears (we traditionally use Bartlett)
1/2 cup oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon good vanilla
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 Tablespoons candied ginger chopped
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350.   Prepare pans:  either a well greased large loaf pan or three mini size.
Pare, halve and core pears and coarsely chop.  You should have about one and a half cups of pears.
In a large bowl, beat together the oil and sugar until very well blended.
Beat in eggs one at a time and then add sour cream and vanilla. 
Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Add that to the oil and sugar mixture and blend until well mixed.  Add pears.  Mix until you are sure they are well distributed.
Spoon into baking dishes and top with a sprinkling of coarse sugar (Turbinado) and bake at 350 for one hour and ten minutes if a large pan.  If using small pans, check after thirty-five minutes.  May need to bake longer.
After done, cool for ten to fifteen minutes and turn out of baking dishes.  Continue to cool on a rack.

The William Henry Miller Inn http://www.millerinn.com/
Lynnette Scofield  Bed and Breakfast Foodie