Friendsgiving In The Forest (Rosemary Pear Shortcake + Pear Infused Sparkling Water)

If you’ve been following along, we are currently celebrating #FriendsgivingInTheForest over here at Jar Of Lemons (Hello, Healthy Mini Bundt Stuffing and Pomegranate Butternut Squash Quinoa Salad!). Today, we’re featuring a healthy Rosemary Pear Shortcake recipe as well as Pear Infused Sparkling Water!

My favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal is, of course, dessert! I mean, I love it all. But I HAVE to make sure to save room for dessert!

Instead of a traditional pie, which I also love, I decided to make something a little different for the holiday. This Rosemary Pear Shortcake went so well with the nature theme of the forest and had (because it’s COMPLETELY gone! Thanks to yours truly and her husband) a sweet but earthy flavor to it.

We also really need to talk about the icing for a second. I mean, you guys know me. I healthify everything that I possibly can. First off, I will say that you can use the icing recipes from the Berry Shortcake post or the Maple Pecan Doughnuts post. The cream for the doughnuts works great as icing and tastes amazing! However……I have to admit that I used regular, non-healthy, buttercream icing. That’s right. I had spent the entire day in the kitchen making a Thanksgiving meal, I was running out of time, and I needed an icing that would be extra sturdy for photos. My mom just happened to leave me an icing mix box the last time she came to visit me, and it just happened to rescue me for this photo shoot! Don’t worry….I used organic, grass-fed butter! But like I said, one of those healthy icings will work great and taste amazing!

One more thing before we get to the recipe! For this cake, I actually tripled the recipe to make it nice and tall. If you’re going for this look, I definitely recommend that 🙂 Ok here’s the recipe!

Rosemary Pear Shortcake:

Ingredients:

All ingredients from the Berry Shortcake recipe

1/2 Pear

3 Tbsp Chopped Rosemary

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all of the ingredients from the Berry Shortcake recipe (following those directions). Blend the half pear in a blender, then add in to shortcake mixture. Lastly, add in the rosemary. If you’re a rosemary fan, feel free to add in more! Bake for about 35-40 minutes, let cool, top with icing and fresh rosemary, and enjoy!

This cake serves 6-8 people (unless you triple the recipe, like I did!) at about 120 calories a slice (not including icing)!

And every Thanksgiving table needs something lovely to wash the meal down with, right? While there are lots of options when it comes to choosing what to serve on this holiday, I wanted to keep it very simple and tasty with Pear Infused Sparkling Water. It’s SO super easy!

Here’s the recipe!

Pear Infused Sparkling Water:

Ingredients:

A bottle of several cans of non-flavored sparkling water (these are my fave!)

1 Pear

Directions:

About 15 minutes before the meal is served, fill each glass half way and drop a slice or two of pear in each glass. Right before the meal is served, fill each glass to the top with the remaining sparkling water. Enjoy!

Side note: Have you been looking at these beautiful plates?? Cari made them and they’re AMAZING! She even let me keep a few 😉 Check out her DIY here!

Looking for a dessert that’s a little more traditional to bring to the Friendsgiving table? Try out these Cranberry Mini Pies!