Pear Crisp

I've been missing my little Bartlett pear tree at the old house this past week.  At this time of year it’s usually heavy with fruit just waiting to be picked.

I regret not trying new pear recipes when I had so much fruit at my disposal.  Much of the fruit went to family, friends and neighbours and the rest were either preserved in jars or made into jam.  We are now enjoying the last few jars of pear jam from the last fruit we harvested from that tree.

A small pear tree was planted in the backyard of our new home early last Spring and we are anticipating a modest harvest next summer. 

When shopping for our new tree it was interesting to find out that in order for a pear tree to bear fruit there must be a specific other variety of pear tree in the vicinity for cross pollination to occur. Our old tree did so well thanks to our neighbour’s pear tree.  There are no visible pear trees in our new neighbourhood so on advice from the nursery staff we purchased a tree that produces four different varieties of pears to ensure successful cross pollination.

Who could have possibly known such details. We are now a little better informed and it will actually be interesting to see four different pear varieties grafted onto one tree.
If all goes well along with my favourite Bartlett variety we may also enjoy Anjou, Flemish Beauty and Comice pears. I can't wait!

While looking for new pear recipes I came across several that looked delicious and promising. Since Bartlett pears are my favourite I selected some recipes that called for this variety. These pears ripen beautifully even when stored in the refrigerator.

Their sweet taste and wonderful texture can be enjoyed in so many different ways. This simple recipe for Pear Crisp is delicious although it initially left me with a few puzzling questions.  No problem, nothing that a few alterations, additions and omissions didn’t fix.

In the end we enjoyed a rather tasty dessert. 

Pear Crisp

Filling
6 ripe pears
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoons lemon zest
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons flour
¼ cup sugar

Topping
¾ cups rolled oats
¼ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
Pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Wash, peel, seed and chop pears.
3. Place pears in a bowl and toss with lemon juice.
4. Mix in flour, lemon zest, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar.
5. In a separate bowl combine rolled oats, brown sugar, softened butter and salt.
6. Spread pear mixture into an 8x8x2 inch glass baking dish.
7. Sprinkle oat topping evenly over pears.
8. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until topping is golden.
9. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

 

 





Notes, Tips and Suggestions

• I happened to have fresh raspberries and added a handful, absolutely delicious. (I suppose this would also change the name of the recipe to Pear, Raspberry Crisp)
• The pears I used were very sweet, next time I will omit the sugar altogether if the pears are sweet enough.
• The recipe called for greasing and flouring the pan, I did not find this necessary as the butter from the topping is sufficient to stop the fruit from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
• The original recipe called for 3 pears, in my estimation not enough to fill an 8x8x2 inch pan.  I increased the quantity to 6 pears and adjusted the measurements for the remaining filling and topping ingredients as well.