Pear Cranberry Oat Crumble

Tonight's theme: Feeding friends at fall. I put my husband in charge of dinner, and volunteered to make dessert. I so wanted to make something from the lovely, seasonal Rustic Fruit Desserts, but was torn between two recipes. I ended up combining elements of both and coming up with my own creation: Pear Cranberry Oat Crumble.

The result is a layer of firm, honey-sweet pear balanced against a tart explosion of cranberry, underneath a crunchy oat-flaked topping. Topped with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, it was a grand finale to a wonderful autumn evening.

Pear Cranberry Oat Crumble

Topping:
2 c. rolled oats
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. fine sea salt
3/4 c. unsalted butter, melted

Fruit filling:
8 large pears, peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 c. cranberries, fresh or frozen
1 1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 T. cornstarch
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cardamom

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a 3-quart baking dish.

To make the topping, mix all the topping ingredients through salt in a bowl. Stir in the butter, then press the topping together with your hands to form small clumps. Put the topping in the freezer while you assemble the filling.

To make the filling, toss the fruit, sugar and spices together in a large bowl. Transfer the filling to the prepared pan and spread it out, pressing the fruit down into the corners.

Press the oat crumble evenly over the fruit, then bake for 60-70 minutes, or until the crumble is lightly golden and the filling is bubbling up in the corners. Cool for 20 minutes or so to temper the heat before serving. Serve with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

Storage: This crumble is best if served the day it is made, but any leftovers can be wrapped in plastic wrap and kept at room temperature for 2-3 days. Reheat in a 300F oven for 10-15 minutes, until warm.

Pear Cake

A friend requested the pear cake recipe I mentioned in my earlier post on pears. This may well be the most simple cake recipe I have ever made. I didn't take a picture because it went pretty quick... It's essentially a slightly crunchy, golden, round, flat cake with slices of moist fruit throughout. Very simple and very good. You also experiment with the fruit, substituting apples or whatever is in season.

Pear Cake

3 or 4 ripe juicy pears
Peel, core and cut into sixths or eighths

Cream:
1 stick butter
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Add:
2 large eggs, one at a time

Combine:
1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Add to butter mixture

Spray an 8" springform pan with Pam. Spread the batter in it. Now, in a pinwheel pattern, press the slices of pear, peeled side up, into the batter. Cream in as many as you can. The more pears, the moister the cake will be.

Bake at 350 degrees until a skewer comes our clean, 45-60 minutes. (With this cake, it's better to underbake than overbake.)

Pears - the Most Symbolic Fruit?

A neighbor recently gave us a large paper bag full of pears that had fallen from her tree and were on the verge of going bad. Bruised and covered with not a few brown mushy spots, the pears could easily have been dismissed by the casual onlooker as rotten and tossed in the trash.

I was convinced that I could still make use of some of the pears. I was amazed by how many of the fruits yielded a creamy white, beautifully ripe interior when I sliced them open. My battered pears yielded a huge pot of warmly spiced pear/apple sauce, and a lovely simple pear tart, with firm pear slices pinwheeled through a crunchy golden crumb.

I suppose many people we meet every day are like my pears- the life-battered surface level fails to reveal the pure goodness that often lies within. These pears reminded me that you cannot always judge a fruit by its appearance, much less a person.

Pear Walnut Crisp

Last night I took what I had lying around and made the following dessert, which I found to be the perfect sweet treat for a rainy winter night. Enjoy!

Pear Walnut Crisp

3 large pears, peeled and sliced and peeled
1/2 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 T. white sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 cinnamon
6 t. butter, melted
2 T. chopped walnuts

Place pears in a small dish, or 2 small dishes. Combine other ingredients, mix and sprinkle on top of the pears. Bake at 350F for 50 minutes until pears are tender and topping is brown. Serves 4.

Autumn Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

Autumn Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

Sunday night I attended a birthday celebration for my friend and sister-in-law Heidi. We had a lovely time eating dinner together: salmon, potatoes, asparagus, and a salad that I brought. I found it in a the October 2007 Cooking Light magazine and it is an excellent salad to serve in the fall/winter season when pears and apples are ripe. Homemade vinaigrette dressing is one of my favorite things to make because it's so simple and so superior to store-bought versions. It is healthier for you too, when you use real olive oil and eliminate the added high-fructose corn syrup that most store-bought dressings contain.

I often tweak it according to what’s in season or what I have on hand. Last Sunday night, for example, I used a mixture of spring mix salad and romaine lettuce, replaced the red onion with sliced fennel (love that fresh licorice flavor!), used a red pear, Gala apple, added dried cranberries, and omitted the goat cheese. It was still great and very fresh-tasting! Here’s the recipe: tweak it as you will!

Autumn Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon salt
Pinch of dried basil
Pinch of ground red pepper

5 cups mixed salad greens
4 cups torn romaine lettuce
2 1/2 cups cubed Asian pear (about 1 large)
2 cups chopped Granny Smith apple (about 1 large)
1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/4 cup (1 ounce) crumbled goat cheese

Preparation:
Combine first 9 ingredients in a bowl, stirring with a whisk.
Combine salad greens, romaine lettuce, Asian pear, apple, and red onion in a large bowl. Drizzle with vinaigrette, and toss well to coat. Sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese

Pear Pie

My Thanksgiving pear pie turned out well, so I am going to post the recipe on my blog. It's actually a combination of 3 different recipes - hope you like the results! (Shout out to my friend Sydnie Speer for first introducing me to the concept of pear pie, and just how delicious it could be.)

Pear Pie with Streusel Topping

Crust:
1 ¼ c. flour
¼ tsp. salt
3 T. butter, cut into small pieces
1 T. shortening, cut into small pieces
½ T. fresh lemon juice
Ice water

Lightly spoon flour into measuring cups; level with knife. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl; cut in butter and shortening with a pastry blender until mixture resembles course meal. Add lemon juice. Sprinkle surface with ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and toss with a fork until moist and crumbly. Shape dough into a ball, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill 1 hour.

Filling:
3 T. flour
¼ tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. salt
2/3 c. plus 1 T. sugar
2 ½ lb. firm-ripe Bartlett or Anjou pears, cored and peeled, each cut into 8 wedges
1 T. fresh lemon juice

Whisk together flour, nutmeg, salt and sugar. Gently toss with pears and lemon juice.
Roll out dough and fit into a 9 ½ inch glass or metal pie plate. Fill shell with filling and sprinkle with topping.

Topping:
½ c. sugar
1/3 c. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ c. butter

Mix all together and crumble evenly over pie.

Bake pie on a baking sheet for 20 minutes at 400F, then reduce oven temperature to 350F and cover pie edge with a pie shield or foil. Continue to bake until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbling, 50 to 60 minutes more. Cool pie on a rack to warm or room temperature, at least 2 hours. Makes 8 servings.