18 Oct 2010 Pear Crisp

Ahhh, fall comfort food!  I love baked pears and I love an oatmeal rich crisp topping.  This is a basic Pear Crisp recipe, if you want something fancier, check out my Drunken Pear Crisp with Cherries recipe.  I cut this recipe from a Cooking Light magazine years ago.  I’ve fooled with it quite a bit, more spices, more oatmeal, more pears… LOL!  The quantities here fit nicely into a 8 or 9 inch square baking pan.  If you have a lot more pears, just up the quantities by by 50% and bake in a 9 inch by 13 inch pan.

Ummm, true confession time.  We like this best at room temperature, for breakfast.  Hey! It’s oatmeal! It’s fruit!

A few years ago I asked my son to type the recipe out for me, with my changes. He did, but he embellished it a bit. I have retyped his version here, edited just a bit for clarity.  He was young at the time, not the big hunk of 19 year old masculinity he is now… Nevertheless, he’s going to crawl into a cave and hibernate when he finds out his mom published this on her blog. Oohhhhhhh, the embarrassment of it all! Don’t anyone tell him about this, puleeeeeese!

My Lovely Mom’s Pear Crisp

6 cups sliced ripe pears (5 or 6 lbs)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
A tiny bit of hard work
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
A whole bunch of JOY
1/3 cup flour
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
3 tablespoons chilled butter
2/3 cup old fashioned oats
½ cup chopped walnuts (if you must)
A pinch of happiness

Directions

Look around you.  Take in your surroundings.  Be thankful. Feel wonderful about yourself and those around you. {Laugh at your son. He’s so FUNNY!} Read the recipe and do what it says.

Preheat oven to 375º.

Combine peeled and sliced pears with the lemon juice, toss gently to coat and then place in baking dish.

In another bowl combine sugar, cornstarch, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg. Stir to combine.  Pour mixture over over pears and mix lightly.

Do one thing, every day, that you have never done before.

In the same bowl (because it’s empty now and who wants to wash another dish?) combine flour, brown sugar, another ½ teaspoon cinnamon and another ¼ teaspoon nutmeg.  Cut in 3 tablespoon cold butter or grate the butter into the flour mixture with a grater (that’s what my mom does) and combine until the mixture looks like coarse bread crumbs.  Stir in oats and optional nuts.  Sprinkle mixture evenly over pear mixture in the baking pan.

Bake at 375º for 30-40 minutes or until pears are tender and topping is golden brown.  Cool at least 20 minutes before eating (hot pears in melted sugar burn).

Smile. You’re all done.

My son is home from college today.  I made this for our breakfast tomorrow.  He and I will enjoy some Pear Crisp and some lattes.  I’ll read the newspaper.  He’ll read something about American history…and then we will probably argue about something stupid.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today, hope you enjoyed the Pear Crisp!

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8 Responses
  1. Louise says:

    Ohhhh, I love his comments! Even a golden oldie like me can benefit from his wonderful outlook on life.

  2. Danette says:

    Polly, I love your site…the pictures, recipes and stories just make me happy…keep it all coming!

    • Polly says:

      Thanks Danette…don’t know why I enjoy doing this so much….but I have a feeling it has to do with comments like yours!

  3. Denise says:

    You’ve inspired me again!! I went and bought some pears and I’m ready to make the house smell great on this fine fall afternoon. 🙂

    P.S. I also love the story with this one.

    P.S.P. I am also making Hasselback potatoes (& some ham) for dinner tonight.

  4. Sue Martin says:

    Hi Polly –

    My son just made your pear crisp. We think it will be delicious. I was his sous chef and cut all the pears but he did the rest on his own. As I was cleaning up (have to teach him to do that, I tasted a little of the crisp topping and there was no sugar in it. In reading your directions, you forgot to add the sugar. It’s in the list of ingredients, not the directions. So, he didn’t know to do that.

    Just thought you might want to fix that. I’ll see if I can add it in. It’s only been in the oven about 10 minutes. Thanks, Sue

    • Polly says:

      OH NOOOOO…, so sorry. THANK YOU for pointing this out!! How embarrassing. I try REALLY hard not to have mistakes like this. I have fixed the directions. I hope no one else had problems…, and thanks for making sure no one will have a problem from here on out.

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