What to Bring to Dinner: Apple and Pear Crisp

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What were the odds that I would happen to have a piece of fabric with apples and pears on it to present this lovely crisp? Slim to none, I'd say.

I hadn't pre-planned including the pears in the crisp, but as luck would have it, I ran out of apples and had to combine the two fruits. The mix of the flavors turned out well: one bit might be all apple, the next all pear, or you may get two-for-one!

I've never made a crisp before. We were invited upstairs to dinner with our fabulous neighbors. When they came down to invite us over, I asked what I could bring. Somehow, the topic of a crisp came up and knowing that they liked my granola, I offered to make one.

Pastry dough and I aren't generally friends, but I am good at cutting and mixing things, so this was the perfect project for me. And, I found a funny little knife that made the fruit into crinkle cuts. I think it's meant to be used for potatoes, but it worked just fine on my pears and apples. You can't go wrong with the combination of flavors here: butter, vanilla, lemon, cinnamon, fruit and oats. And it's the easiest thing I've made for a dessert in a long time.

The neighbors loved it. I think this will go into my regular rotation of easy, take-along desserts. Hope you like it.

Apple and Pear Crisp

adapted from Simply Recipes

serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 2 medium Pears, cut into chunks
  • 2 medium Apples, cut into chunks
  • 3 tsps Lemon Juice
  • 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1 cup Brown Sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
  • 1 cup Rolled Oats
  • 1/2 cup Butter, room temperature
  • 5 to 10 almonds, crushed
  • 5 to 10 Walnuts, crushed

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. In a mixing bowl, combine fruit, lemon juice, and vanilla. Toss to combine.
  3. Put the pear and apple pieces into a baking dish. I don't really layer, just put them in there, and any baking dish will do here, I used a souffle dish.
  4. Mix together the dry ingredients (oats, cinnamon and brown sugar) with the butter.
  5. Using a pastry blender or a fork, chop up the butter until it is in small pea-sized pieces.
  6. Cover the fruit with the oat mixture.
  7. Place the nuts on top of the oat mixture.
  8. Set in the oven for 45 minutes.
  9. Bake until the topping looks crunchy, being careful not to burn the nut topping.
  10. Serve with ice cream on the side.