Pear and Brown Sugar Crisp

  Fine Cooking recipe books are among some of my favorites. The cookie recipe that I use the most is from one of theirs and when Sue bought me the pie book, I was so pleased. All of the recipes though they might look like a standard are just enough different that they are lots of fun to try.

  This recipe for Pear Crisp was the first recipe I tried. I had some lovely pears, Bosc, from our local HyVee store and we thought the crisp was so good. The pinch of cloves in the recipe gives it just the right hint of spice and it was quite simple to make. 

  I used individual dishes, but you can use one pan as the recipe calls for. Lyle ate his warm with ice cream and caramel sauce on it. That really set it over the top. We always have homemade vanilla ice cream in the freezer so this makes a special dessert of the crisp. Cream would be good on it also. If you can find pears, I highly recommend this.

Pear and Brown Sugar Crisp

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Topping

3 oz. (⅔ cup all purpose flour)

2 ½ oz. (5 tablespoons butter, softened)

¾ cup oatmeal, (instant or old-fashioned) Not the type in the envelopes to microwave

½ cup firmly packed brown sugar

Pinch of salt

  In a food processor or mixer or by hand, combine the flour, butter, oats, brown sugar and salt. Set aside. 

Pear Filling

3 lbs. Pears (about 6 large) such as Bosc, or Bartlett, peeled, halved and cored

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

⅓ to ½ cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch of ground cloves

4 ½ teaspoons cornstarch

  Cut the pears into pieces about 1 inch long by ½ inch thick. In a large bowl, mix the pears, lemon juice, vanilla, ⅓ cup of the sugar. The cinnamon, cloves and cornstarch. Toss to combine. Taste and add more sugar if you like.

  Pour the pear mixture into an 11 x 7 ovenproof baking dish or into individual ramekins. 

I used 4, 5 ounce and 4, 7 ounce ramekins. Cover with the topping. Turn the oven down to 325° and bake the crisp until the top is golden brown and the pears are tender. 70 to 80 minutes, Serve warm or at room temperature. It took the full 70 minutes and the pears were not mushy, just tender.