Pear Crisp

As I was working away, I realized I forgot to defrost some meat for the night's dinner. Good thing I had a box of President's Choice chicken strips in the freezer and I can bake them from frozen! But anytime I put the oven on, I have to bake some sort of dessert with it. I found some pears from my parent's tree that I have taken the skin off and cored and kept in the freezer for a future dessert. That dessert was going to be born that night -- a pear crisp.

I found an apple crisp recipe in my Williams Sonoma "Fruit Dessert" cook book. And substituting it with pear should be a piece of cake....no pun on that.

It turned out...well, good. However, it wasn't as "crisp" as it should be. Culprit -- frozen pears. It really should be made out of fresh pears instead. Thus, you would have less moisture in the dish.

With my tip above, I am sure you will find that this recipe works.

Pear Crisp

Crisp Topping
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1 cup of quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup pf cold unsalted butter -- cut into cubes (save a couple of the small cubes for greasing your pan)

Pear Filling
6 cups of pears, peeled, cored and sliced
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 F

Lightly grease a baking dish that can hold 2 qt capacity.

Topping:
In a bowl, stir together the flour, oats, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon.
Cut or rub butter into the mixture until it looks crumbly. Put in fridge while you prepare the pear filling.

Pear Filling:
Stir together sugar, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Add the pears and toss until all the pears have been covered with the sugary mixture.

Pour into the greased baking dish and distribute evenly. Sprinkle the crisp topping mixture on top of the pears evenly.

Bake for approx 50 or until the topping is crisp.

Serve warm -- with ice cream or whipped cream.