After 10 years, I suppose it's too late now to add a new 'label' for my recipes and recipe collections, but if I did, it would probably be "GRANDMA RECIPE". Not that it is one of my Grandma's recipes, but it would be all the recipes my kids looked at and said, "Mom, that is such an old Grandma recipe" or "Mom, that's something an old Grandma would make."
This is yet another one of those kinds of recipes.
When I was a kid my family rarely had pears in the house. I think it was because they are such a persnickety little fruit, and they like to go from 'too hard' to 'ripe' to 'too ripe' to 'brown mush' in a matter of about 7 seconds. Ok, maybe 2 days, but it feels like two seconds when you've spent money on those little buggers and they are only perfect-ripe for a day before they to run to the finish line of brown. Instead, my Mother would buy canned pears. All of us kids liked them and they sure lasted longer than fresh! But that's the only way we ate them! Straight out of the can... I don't recall my Mom ever baking with them. But boy did I love baked goods featuring pears! Thank goodness for church and school potlucks! Ha! In our parish and Catholic school it never failed I'd find some goodie made with pears, be it pear bars, pear pies, pear bread, pear crisps... mmm.
Only one of my kids ended up liking pears all that much after childhood. As babies they loved them, as kids they ate them once in a while but by high school it wasn't a fruit they would choose. Sad me. But I can still get my "pear fix" once in a while by buying some - and when the little devils go from perfect to "I'm going to be over ripe by tomorrow so you better use me up" - this is one of the items I usually make.
I make it sugar free and flour free by using a natural sweetener and coconut flour but obviously most people just use sugar and wheat based flour. Use what you have. These kind of grandma recipes also allow for you to use more or less ingredients based on your own taste and what you have on hand. I had to use up 5 pears and they were all average medium size. I also LOVE the oatmeal/cinnamon topping more than I do the fruit, so I make a nice amount of topping so it's nice and thick and crunchy. If you are like my husband, you like fruit fillings more than crumble, crisp or pie toppings and crusts; so if that's the case, just half the topping ingredients.
Pear Crisp
4-5 pears, peeled and sliced
2 t lemon juice
1 T sugar or sweetener
2/3 - scant brown sugar or sweetener
1 1/4 - 1 1/2 c oatmeal
1 1/2 T coconut flour (or 3 T flour)
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground ginger
3 T butter
Place sliced pears into a baking dish approximately 8-9" square or the equivalent. Drizzle and sprinkle the lemon juice over the pears. In a bowl, mix together the sugars, oatmeal, coconut flour and spices. Cut in the butter with your fingers until crumbly. Layer evenly over the pears and bake at 350 for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown and bubbly. Let cool completely before serving. Great alone or with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, etc.
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| Sliced pears in a dish and ready to be sprinkled with lemon juice |
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| Oatmeal and sugar with spices... mmmm |
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| Cut in the butter til crumbly |
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| Topped and ready to bake! |
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| Let cool completely before serving or til just barely warm as this allows the fruit to 'set up' and thicken a bit. |
You might be interested in these products related to this recipe (available through Amazon):
Pyrex Basics 8.1" Square (2 quart)
