Everyone who tried this last night—last night refers to one night in the fall of 2009—loved it, except for me! I didn’t fall in love with it until about an hour ago, when I had a bite of the leftovers—soooo GOOD!  What was I thinking earlier? I had to scrape the bottom of the serving dish to get the last leftover helping for myself 🙂

This crisp is made with almost a full bottle of Zinfandel, and I’ve served it with a choice of small scoops of homemade vanilla ice-cream or with whipped cream. 

Inviting friends over this fall? Serve this for dessert—trust me 🙂

Start this one day before you plan to serve it—the cherries need time to get drunk! 

Drunken Pear Crisp with Cherries

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup dried SOUR cherries—I bought mine at Trader Joe’s
• Approximately ¾ bottle of Zinfandel
• 5 cups thickly sliced pears—about 2½ lbs. or 8 medium
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• ½ cup (100 g) sugar (divided use)
• 1¼ cup (150 g) flour
• 1/3 cup toasted sliced almonds plus 1 tablespoon finely chopped toasted sliced almonds
• ¼ cup (50 g) firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/8  teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• 8 tablespoon (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled

DIRECTIONS

1. The Day Before: In a small saucepan over medium heat combine dried cherries with enough Zinfandel to cover by 2″. 
2. Bring the mixture to a simmer, then remove from heat and let cool. 
3. Place the cooled dried cherries, still soaking in Zinfandel, in the refrigerator and let soak overnight, at least 8 hours. 
4. Drain the cherries, but reserve the wine. 
5. In a large bowl, combine the sliced pears, drained cherries, ¼ cup white sugar, and cornstarch—toss well. 
6. Add ½ cup of the cherry-Zinfandel liquid and then let stand for 30 minutes. 
7. Preheat oven to 375°. 
8. In another bowl combine the flour, remaining ¼ cup sugar, 1/3 cup toasted almonds, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. 
9. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter. 
10. Stir with a fork until mixture comes together in crumbles—Do not overmix and get a big ball of dough! Break up any clumps bigger than one inch. 
11. Spoon fruit mixture into a 2 quart baking dish—8” square, but 9” square will work, too. 
12. Evenly sprinkle crumbs on top of the fruit mixture.
13. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon finely chopped almonds over the crumbled topping.
14. Bake until mixture is bubbling and topping is browned, about 50 minutes. 
15. Let sit for at least 20 minutes for filling to thicken slightly.

Serve warm, with or without ice cream or whipped cream!

Then guard the leftovers with your life! It’s such a nice treat after cleaning up, or for breakfast the next morning 🙂

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today!