Pear Caramel Buttercream

By stancec44

Ingredients

• 12 ounces cream
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1 1/2 ounces butter
• 7 ounces sugar
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• for Pear Caramel, add 6 oz. pear juice from underripe pears
• See buttercream and ingredients below

Preparation

Step 1

Bring the cream to a boil with the vanilla bean. Steep for an hour, or as long as you can. If you don’t have that kind of time, use 1 Tbsp of vanilla extract instead.

Caramelize the 7 ounces of sugar by setting a large pot over a medium flame. Sprinkle with some of the sugar to form an even coat over the bottom of the pan. As the sugar melts, sprinkle in a little more. This is a slow process. Shake and swirl the pan to mix, don’t stir. If you notice a hot spot that is caramelizing too fast, sprinkle extra sugar there to “put it out” so to speak. When all the sugar has been added and liquefied, cook until it reaches a foxy brown color.

Immediately pour in a quarter of the cream, and stir. It will bubble and foam and if you didn’t listen to me and used a small pot, you may experience a dangerous overflow, burn your toes, and spend the rest of the day cleaning caramel from your stove. But, if you have a large pot, you’re safe. The mixture will foam up, but not out. Stir, being careful of the steam that’s undoubtedly coming from the pot. The sugar will clump. Worry not.

When the foam subsides, pour in more cream, repeating until it’s all been safely added. Stir and simmer until any clumped up sugar has dissolved. Then stir in the butter, salt, and vanilla bean scrapings.

You can strain the mixture if you like, to sieve out any bits that may have not dissolved. I like to leave the vanilla bean in until just before serving, so it continues to infuse the caramel.

Pear Caramel

When you make my recipe for spiced pear layer cake, you’ll find yourself with 6 ounces of pear juice and, perhaps, the desire to creatively utilize it. If you haven’t made said cake, but just want to try out this recipe, feel free to use apple cider or store bought pear juice.

Follow the above recipe, but use only 7 ounces of cream. After you’ve caramelized the sugar and added the cream, add in the pear juice.

This caramel has a brighter flavor, due to the acidity in the juice, and a lighter body because it uses less cream. It doesn’t have a fruity flavor, per se, but its lightness and brightness help it pair (haha) beautifully with fruit.

I love this drizzled over ice cream or whipped into a batch of Swiss Buttercream for a luxurious caramel “frosting” for the aforementioned pear layer cake.

For Buttercream:

Caramel Variation

Before making the buttercream, you’ll need to make one batch of caramel, about 16 ounces. You can actually add quite a bit more more, up to 25 ounces. But 16’s a good place to start.

Cool the caramel to room temperature. Follow the standard buttercream recipe exactly. After you’ve whipped in the butter, turn the speed of the mixer down to low and drizzle in all of the caramel. Let it continue to whip until it’s fully incorporated, adjust salt and vanilla to taste.



Swiss meringue buttercream
10 oz egg whites (it’s okay to go a tad over)
10 oz sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
the scrapings from 1 vanilla bean
2 pounds unsalted butter, cut into 2” chunks and softened to a spreadable state

Combine the egg whites, sugar, salt, and vanilla bean together in an clean bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of water and turn the heat on medium low. You don’t need the water to even simmer, you just want it hot enough to steam, since steam is what actually heats the whites.

Whisk frequently to prevent an egg white omelet forming on the sides, but continual mixing isn’t necessary. Aim to get the mixture to at least a 145° for food safety reasons, but reaching 150° would make for a nice margin of error. If your egg whites are at room temperature, this won’t take very long, maybe just a few minutes. Whites straight from the fridge will take longer.

When the mixture is sufficiently hot, remove from the heat and whip on medium high speed until the mixture has doubled in volume and turned snowy white. Continue whipping until the meringue is cool. Use your hands to feel the bowl itself, rather than simply testing the temperature of the meringue. You want it to feel perfectly cool to the touch with no trace of warmth. Note: if you are using a glass or ceramic bowl, even if the meringue has cooled, the bowl itself may still be quite warm and continue conducting heat into the buttercream over time. If you are using a glass or ceramic bowl, transfer the meringue to a new bowl before proceeding or continue mixing until the bowl itself is cool.

Turn the mixer down to medium-low and begin adding in the butter, one chunk at a time. If you didn’t let your meringue cool enough, this is when you’ll really regret it. By the time you’ve added all the butter, you may need to scrape down the bowl to fully incorporate any butter or meringue that’s stuck at the sides.

Finally, splash in some vanilla extract or what have you. Just keep adding a 1/4 teaspoon at a time until it suits your tastes.

The buttercream freezes beautifully. I always have a few containers in my fridge to pull out when I want to make macarons or layer cake.