A beautiful old recipe from the Eifel, where they only serve dark yeast cakes at funerals. The cakes are called ‘Birrebunnes’ and are simply unbeatable. I prefer old pear varieties for the recipe, preferably the pears that like to hang on the tree ‘for lack of flavor’ and moisture.
The Countess of Paris is a great variety for this very old and very, very simple recpept that doesn’t require any work, you don’t have to core or peel the pears. Just wash the pears with skin, dry them and put them on various baking racks (I always put 2 – 4 racks in the oven, but the more, the longer it takes to dry). In no case take off the stalks, so that the pears do not leak in the oven.
Place a deep, clean juice tray with baking paper under the whole baking grids in the oven to catch the pear juice that drips out. Bake these pears in a convection oven at 150° C for about 4-5 h, one h longer is not bad either, with oven timer it goes very smoothly.
They are nicely browned and do not look very attractive, but if you bite into them, you will quickly be proven wrong, the pears are sweet and wonderfully aromatic! Then let the pears cool overnight in the oven, not even let them dry out, but preserve the moisture.
The next day, remove the stem ends from all the pears and simply process the pears in the Flotten Lotte like applesauce and mix with the dark pear juice from the juice bowl.
Heat a can of sugar beet syrup (at least 450 g, but depending on taste) (microwave for about 40 sec. on 650 watts) and stir it in. The puree can be used wonderfully as a substitute for jam or, even better, as a mixture for spreading on yeast cakes.
