Maple Bourbon Pear Butter

Maple Bourbon Pear Butter is fall in a jar, with ripe pears simmered down with real maple syrup and a splash of bourbon until they turn dark, silky, and spoon-coating thick. It tastes like cozy mornings and warm kitchens, and it makes even plain toast feel like a treat.

This recipe comes from Ball’s test kitchen in The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving, which is one of my go-to sources when I want a flavorful preserve with solid, safe canning instructions. The maple and bourbon aren’t just there for novelty, either, they give pear butter a deeper caramel note that feels extra seasonal.

I love fruit butters because they feel old-fashioned in the best way: no fuss, no pectin, just patient simmering until the fruit turns into something concentrated and spoonable. This one makes my whole kitchen smell like pears and caramel, and it’s the kind of batch I’ll happily babysit on the stove while doing other things around the house.

One important note: Ball’s stated yields are often off, and this recipe is no exception. The book claims about 6 half-pints, but I consistently get closer to 4 half-pints from 4 pounds of pears, which also matches Ball’s newer guidance online for pear butter yields.

Ingredients for Maple Pear Butter

This recipe keeps it simple and lets the pears do most of the work, with maple syrup for richness and bourbon for warmth and complexity.

• Pears: the base of the recipe, providing natural sweetness and that classic buttery fruit texture once cooked down
• Maple syrup: adds deep caramel flavor and boosts the “fall” vibe without making it taste like plain sugar
• Bourbon: brings warmth and complexity, and helps balance the sweetness with a little oak-vanilla bite

You can use any flavorful, ripe pear variety here (more on that below), and you can tweak the character of the finished butter with spices if you’d like. I sometimes add a small pinch of cinnamon or a tiny bit of vanilla, but I keep it minimal because the maple-bourbon combo is the whole point.

If you don’t want to use bourbon, you can swap in pear juice or apple juice for a similar simmering liquid, but it will change the flavor profile and you’ll lose that signature warmth (and it won’t be “maple bourbon” pear butter anymore).

That said, maple pear butter is excellent on its own, the bourbon just takes it up another notch.

How to Make Maple Pear Butter

This is a classic fruit butter method: cook the fruit until very soft, puree, then cook it down until thick and glossy.

Prep the pears

I start by peeling and coring the pears, then chopping them into rough pieces. You don’t need perfect knife work here because everything gets cooked and pureed, but even-ish chunks help it soften at the same pace.

If you’d like, you can skip the peeling and coring and process everything through a food mill after it simmers and softens. I do that with apples, but I don’t do that with pears. Food mills will pull out cores and seeds, but they don’t pull out the grit cells that you often find in pear cores.

For best results, peel and core by hand and save the food mill for non-pear recipes.

Simmer the fruit mixture

I combine the chopped pears, maple syrup, and bourbon in a large nonreactive pot (a stainless or enameled Dutch oven is perfect).

Once it reaches a boil, I turn it down and let it simmer uncovered until the pears are very soft, stirring often so nothing sticks or scorches on the bottom.

Puree until smooth

After the pears are soft, I let the mixture cool slightly (just enough that it’s not dangerously hot), then puree it in batches in a food processor or blender until smooth. I actually prefer to use an immersion blender since I don’t have to transfer to another container.

Either way is fine, but you’re going to want to puree it. Pears don’t fall apart into sauce as easily as apples, and you could cook this for days and they’d still be in chunks. Mashing helps, but it won’t be a “butter” until you puree it.

Cook down until thick

Once the puree goes back into the pot, I bring it back to a boil, then reduce to a steady simmer and cook uncovered until it thickens, darkens, and holds its shape on a spoon.

If you’re using a crock pot, it’ll take about 3-4 hours on high, or 6 to 8 hours on low, with the lid slightly cracked to let steam out.

On the stovetop, it’s much faster, but keep the temperature low so it doesn’t scorch. Expect it to thicken in 15 to 30 minutes, depending on your stove’s heat. You can stop at any thickness, but I usually go until it mounds up on a spoon.

As it gets closer to finished, I stir more frequently because thick fruit butter can scorch quickly right at the end.

Canning Pear Butter

I use a standard boiling water bath canner for this recipe, and I always start with clean, hot jars.

I ladle the hot pear butter into hot half-pint jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. After removing air bubbles and adjusting headspace as needed, I wipe the rims, apply lids, and tighten bands to fingertip-tight. Then the jars go into a boiling water canner, fully submerged, and process for 10 minutes (adjusting for altitude, see below).

When the processing time is done, I turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, and let the jars rest for 5 minutes before transferring them to a towel-lined counter to cool completely.

Serving Ideas

This one is an easy pantry staple that ends up in all kinds of places in my kitchen. I spread it thick on toast or biscuits, swirl it into oatmeal, and use it as a filling layer in thumbprint cookies or between cake layers when I want something different than jam.

It’s also surprisingly good on the savory side. A spoonful alongside pork roast is exactly what Ball suggests, and I agree, but I also like it with sharp cheddar, creamy brie, or even as a glaze base for roasted pork tenderloin (warm it gently and brush it on near the end).

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