Gluten-Free Pear & Dried Cherry or Chocolate Bread

Isn't that red pear just gorgeous! (Thanks, Marsha and Gene!)

So what's a girl to do when she has been gifted with an abundance of pears.  The easy thing would have been to make a pear crumble or galette, but instead I started looking for new recipes to use them in, of course!  I came across this Gluten Free Pear Bread from Carol on Simply Gluten-free that looked just beautiful, and I had just about all of the ingredients on hand.  So I gave it a whirl - with some changes just based on personal preferences.

The original recipe included walnuts, and since I'm not a big fan of nuts in baked stuff, I just replaced them with unsweetened dried cherries.  I also cut way back on the sugar since I was guessing this bread wouldn't need that much.  And of course, I added some Almond flour.

What can I say? It came out delicious.  I'm sure it would be great subbing in Apples instead of Pears. Or both! And maybe adding some fresh cranberries. 

Update!  And then, because I couldn't leave well enough alone.  I made it with chocolate (wish I had more dried cherries because that would have been a great combination!).  And because everything tastes better with chocolate...

So take your choice.

 Or try something new!

Gluten Free Pear & Dried Cherry Quick Bread (adapted from Simply Gluten-Free)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Brown Rice Flour
• 1/2 cup Almond Flour
• 1/2 cup Tapioca Starch/Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 scant tsp Xanthan Gum
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 2 large Eggs
• 2/3 cup Sugar
• 1/4 cup Erythritol
• 1/2 cup Canola or Vegetable Oil
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 large Pears, peeled and diced
• 1 cup unsweetened Dried Cherries, or whatever you choose to add

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and spray a 9 X 5 loaf pan with cooking spray (I like coconut)

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the first seven dry ingredients.


2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, erythritol, oil, and vanilla.


3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until just blended.


4. Fold in the pears and cherries.


5. Pour the batter into the loaf pan, and bake for 60 - 70 minutes.  A toothpick should come out dry.

Let the bread cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, and then turn out onto a cooking rack.

Easy!