Thursday, November 18, 2010

Food, Glorious Food (chapter 7)

Chapter 7: PEARS

There's a pear tree in our backyard that Josh's grandma planted many years ago. It's produced a fair amount of fruit for probably the past 5 years.

This year, I picked the pears off the tree in the middle of October. And there was only about 35, enough to fill just one large bowl.

I'm actually not a big fan of pears. In years past, I've made a spiced apple/pear jam that I really like with the pears and apples off our trees, but this year there wasn't enough apples to make the jam. I didn't want to just can the pears, because I don't like the taste and texture of canned pears. So I looked for a new recipe to try that I would actually eat. I found one called "Pear Cranberry Crisp". It looked delicious, and it actually was.

There was enough pears to make 2 of the desserts. I made one to share with Josh's family when Gideon and Alyssa were in town, and I made another one to share with some friends. Everybody who tried it, liked it (well, at least they said they did!). It had the perfect combination of sweet and tart tastes in a dessert, and the perfect texture mixture of soft and chewy with flaky and crunchy. It was wonderful!

And just in case you ever want to make this yummy dessert (I know I will again), here's the recipe:

Pear Cranberry Crisp

1. Combine: 6 cups of sliced, peeled pears, 1 cup frozen cranberries, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 TB flour, 1/2 t. cinnamon, 1/2 t. ginger, 1/4 t. nutmeg, 1/8 t. cloves. Mix well. Pour into a greased 9 in. square pan.

2. Combine: 1 cup flour, 2/3 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, 1/4 t. salt. Cut in 1/2 cup cold butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over fruit.

3. Bake at 350* for 50-60 minutes or until pears are tender. Garnish with whipped cream if desired (we used vanilla ice cream). Makes 8 servings.

3 comments:

alyssa said...

that was one of the TASTIEST treats we've ever had. Excited to try the recipe!

darcymae said...

looks yummy! but i am just baffled as to how you cannot LOVE pears!!

Gina said...

I can't wait to try this recipe. Looks great.