Pour the apple juice into a heavy based pan and bring to the boil, you want to reduce this down from 1 litre to just 250ml, one quarter of the original amount. Pour this into a jug and set aside.

Roughly chop the pears and remove zest from the lemon with a grater (scrub and dry if using a ‘normal’ waxed to remove the preservative spray) .

Chop lemon in half and squeeze out the juice. Now scoop out the flesh just leaving the white pith behind. Chop flesh and toss this into your washed out pan along with the pears, lemon zest and juice. Add the pepper corns and bring to the boil then simmer for 40 minutes until everything is tender.

Press the mixture either through a sieve with a wooden spoon or use a food mill. You get a smoother texture doing this than you would if you whizzed everything up in a food processor, this is a case of slow is better and by-hand beats technology.

Return the smooth pulp to the pan and add the reduced apple juice that you set aside earlier.

Bring to a boil and lower temperature to simmer for approximately 25-30 minutes until you have a thick creamy consistency.

Spoon the spread into two small sterilised jars and pop on the lids.

Your Sugar Free Pepper Pear And Lemon Spread will keep for up to 3 months, once opened store in the fridge and use within a couple of weeks.