But you can also churn pears into ice cream, as we discovered in this recipe by Samantha Seeley, who blogs on food from her home in that great food mecca, Hudson Valley, New York. She contributed the recipe to the delicious recipe files on VermontCreamery.com.

Make a double batch, because the single quart doesn’t last very long!

Prep time is 15 minutes, cook time is 30 minutes. With freezing, total time is 6 hours, 45 minutes. You can see the recipe with full photos at Sweet-Remedy.com.

RECIPE: PEAR CRÈME FRAÎCHE ICE CREAM

Ingredients For 1 Quart

 
*You can add vanilla extract to regular crème fraîche.

Calling all ice cream gourmets: Make Pear Crème Fraîche Ice Cream. Photo courtesy Sweet Remedy | Vermont Creamery.

Preparation

1. WASH, peel and chop the pears. Combine the pears and the arrowroot or cornstarch in a small saucepan. Add the water and place over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, while stirring. The mixture will thicken up. Refrigerate until you are ready to churn the ice cream mixture.

2. BEAT the milk and eggs together in a large saucepan. Add the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger and cook over medium-low heat. Constantly stir with a wooden spoon until thickened enough to coat the back of the spoon. Remove from the heat. Once cooled, add the heavy cream and place plastic wrap directly on the top of the mixture. Refrigerate for 4 hours or longer.

3. CHURN the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Once churning is complete, add the crème fraîche to the ice cream, it will resemble soft serve. Mix in the pear mixture and maple glazed pecans recipe. Transfer to a container with a lid that is suitable for freezing. Freeze until frozen through, usually about 3-4 hours.

HOW TO PICK A PEAR

Anjou, Bartlett and Bosc pears are varieties that can be eaten raw or cooked. Other varieties, such as Forelle and Seckel, are better eaten raw.

Pears are one of the few fruits that are much better when they’re picked before they ripen. Pears ripen from the inside out, so as soon as the stem end has a slight give to it when gently pressed, the fruit is ripe. Don’t wait for the midsection to be soft.

Buy firm pears and place them in a paper bag to ripen if you need them in a day or so. Placing a banana or an apple in the bag speed up ripening (here’s why).

 
WHAT IS CRÈME FRAÎCHE?

Crème fraîche (pronounced crem fresh, French for “fresh cream”) is a thickened cream. It’s not as thick as sour cream, but more of the consistency of yogurt, which is an appropriate analogy because it is slightly soured with bacterial culture. Originally from Normandy, the dairy heartland of France, today it is used extensively in Continental and American fine cuisine.

Sour cream, which is more accessible and less expensive, can be substituted in most recipes; but crème fraîche has advantages: it can be whipped, and it will not curdle when cooked over high heat. In addition, it is usually a bit lighter in body than commercial sour creams, more subtly sour, and overall more elegant.

Crème fraîche is made by inoculating unpasteurized heavy cream with Lactobacillus cultures, letting the bacteria grow until the cream is both soured and thick and then pasteurizing it to stop the process. Thus, authentic crème fraîche cannot be made at home because generally, only pasteurized cream is available to consumers. To add Lactobacillus to pasteurized cream will cause it to spoil instead of sour.

The only negative to crème fraîche is that it’s pricey. You can make your own with far less expense with this crème fraîche recipe.

For Thanksgiving and Christmas gifts, there are seasonal flavors and boxed gift sets for the tea lover. Among the finest are these, from Harney & Sons, include:

 
There’s also a Holiday Tea Blend, a black tea spiced with citrus, almond, clove and cinnamon. It’s available on tea bags and loose teas. A reusable gift tin of 20 silky tea sachets is $8.67 on Amazon.

White Christmas Tea is a white tea with holiday aromas and flavors: nut aromas from almonds, spice from cardamom and sweet creaminess from vanilla.

For Hanukkah, there’s a Celebration Tea gift set. The tea has traditional English flavors of fruits and nuts, and is packaged with caramels from Torn Ranch, mini Star Shortbreads from Walker’s, Chocolate Coins from Lake Champlain Chocolates and a Delphine Jacquard tea towel. All food products are certified kosher.

For anyone who loves tea and wants to learn more about it, we recommend The Harney & Sons Guide To Tea. It’s informative, meant for consumers (as opposed to tea industry professionals), and is full of “Wow, I’m glad to know that” information.

We typically take advantage of the holiday blend coffees to switch up our caffeine consumption. In past years, it was always a bag of ground coffee, and we’d make a whole pot, whether or not others wanted to participate.

But now, with the proliferation of Keurig single-cup brewers and other brands that use K-Cups, it’s easier to enjoy a quick cup.

It’s time to bring on the holiday K-cups. You can find these limited edition coffees at retailers and online. Here’s a selection of coffees for the holiday season:
 
Barrie House Pumpkin Spice K Cups

Arabica beans are blended with the spicy flavor of holiday pumpkin pie. More information.
 
Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Favor K Cups

Grab a seasonal donut when you pick up a box of these! More information.

Green Mountain’s medium roast coffee is infused with flavors of cinnamon, pumpkin and nutmeg. More information.

Get the ground coffee in bags.
 
Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend K Cups

Starbucks doesn’t have a pumpkin-flavored coffee, but produces a Thanksgiving Blend they describe as a “rich fall brew [that] features herbal notes with Sumatran beans and elegant soft spice from the coffee of Guatemala’s Antigua region. You’ll find it pairs well with the entire Thanksgiving meal, from savory turkey to sweet pumpkin pie.” It’s certified OU kosher. More information.
 
Seasonal Sampler

You can get a 30-count K-Cup assortment of holiday and winter cappuccino, chai, cider, coffee and tea from different brewers. Check out the Brewers Variety Pack Sampler with K-Cups from Brooklyn Beans, Crazy Cups, Green Mountain, Grove Square, Twinings and others.
 
Consider holiday K-Cups as a gift for your favorite Keurig owner.
 
FOR TEA DRINKERS

Take a look at Harney & Sons for delicious holiday teas and gift sets.

There are also two good candidates that are enjoyed year-round, but have notes of holiday spices:

 
We think we’ll make a cup right now.

You can buy Christmas sugar cubes decorated with tiny candy canes, gingerbread men, reindeer and snowmen.

Or, you can serve something more subtle in appearance and sophisticated in flavor: a bowl of spiced vanilla sugar. You can make it or buy it.

To buy it, head over to Silk Road Spices, where handmade vanilla sugar* is blended with allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, mace and nutmeg.

In addition to sweetening drinks, you can sprinkle it on cereal, plain yogurt or toast. Try it in whipped cream, too.

For $7.99, give jars as stocking stuffers.

To make your own, try the recipe below. It takes only five minutes to blend the ingredients, but you’ll need to wait 48 hours for drying.

The sugar will keep for several weeks in an airtight container. Since the recipe makes four cups, you can share it with friends.

Ingredients For 4 Cups

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE all of the spices in a cast iron pan. Turn the heat to medium and stir until the aroma fills the air. Remove spices from pan just as they start to crackle. Transfer to a mortar and pestle and grind the spices roughly.

2. PLACE the sugar in a large bowl and sprinkle the vanilla over it. Stir thoroughly; the sugar will turn a light brown color.

3. MIX the spices with the vanilla sugar. Leave the bowl uncovered overnight to dry. The next day, break it up until it returns to granulated form (you can pulse it in a food processor or spice grinder).

4. COVER the sugar bowl and let it rest overnight. The following day, sieve through a mesh strainer. Store in an airtight container.
 
*You can make regular vanilla sugar by placing a vanilla bean in an airtight container of sugar. Try a turbinado sugar like Sugar In The Raw for a more aesthetic effect. Or, purchase it from premium sugar companies like Nielsen-Massey.

They’re also made in pumpkin shapes and maple leaf shapes; then individually shrink-wrapped to preserve freshness.

 
They can be eaten at room temperature or straight from the fridge, and they freeze beautifully.

Get yours at CranberryIslandKitchen.com:

The whoopie pie is Maine’s Official State Dessert, but the now-defunct Berwick’s Bakery in Boston (1898-1977) may have been the origin: A retired employee said that the company first started to bake whoopie pies in 1926, earlier than any other reference.

But Lancaster, Pennsylvania claims to be the originator, with an anecdotal story that the recipe originated with an [unknown] Amish housewife. As the story goes, when Amish husbands and children would find the baked treats in their lunch bags, they would shout “Whoopie!”

The whoopie pie is actually a sandwich cookie: two round, mound-shaped pieces of devil’s food chocolate cake with vanilla frosting in-between. The recipe first appears in cookbooks during the Depression, in recipe collections from several states.

As the story is variously told, Amish housewives would bake these treats and put them in their farmer husbands’ (or children’s) lunch boxes. When the lucky recipients would discover what was for dessert, they would shout “whoopie!”

Today there are dozens of flavors of cakes and fillings. There’s nothing left to do but take a bite.