Whole Wheat Pear Bread

For Christmas, Dad and Carla gave us fruit of the month club from Harry and David! I was so excited to receive our first shipment of pears! They were the biggest pears I have ever seen, and they were delicious, but I knew we wouldn't be able to eat them all before they went bad so I decided to bake with them. I wanted to make something somewhat healthy after all the rich foods that are consumed during Christmas and came up with this recipe for some whole wheat pear bread. I thought it was quite tasty, and I was actually surprised at how much Nick liked it. He even said it was better than banana bread! Now, that is a bold statement, and I am not sure I am willing to make that one myself (I love banana bread!). Nevertheless it was yummy and a good variation on the quick breads you usually see.

Ingredients:
2 cups peeled diced pears
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups white wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup pear butter *
1/3 cup chopped pecans
* We had some pear butter made by Nick's Aunt Frankye, but if you can't find any, I think it would be fine to substitute applesauce- your bread just may be a little less sweet.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray with flour.
3. In one bowl, mix the pears, sugar, egg, oil, and pear butter together.
4. In a second bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice.
5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir until combined.
6. Stir in the pecans.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan.
8. Bake until a toothpick can be inserted and comes out clean (mine took about 45 minutes).