The Best Pear Crisp in the World

by Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger

13 Mar 2008 03:33 AM

I'm not generally one to cook with pears. They never last long enough in our fridge to accumulate enough to make a really great pie or cobbler or crisp. But we had such luck last night and so a-baking I went.

This filling is really inspired by a recipe I found in Family Fun Magazine. (Yes, you'll notice I get quite a few recipes from there.) I like it because the ground ginger gives the dish a little kick. This is definitely a case where less is more, and when I experimented with adding other spices, I have to admit the final product was not as good. Pear filling spiced with just ginger and sugar--is exactly what is needed in this crisp.

You will need:

6 cups of peeled, cored and sliced ripe pears (pears should be moderately soft--but not browned)

1/3 cup of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger (you can add more if you like, but be careful--ginger has a kick to it)

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

1 tablespoon of flour

Topping:

1 cup of flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter

Directions:

Mix together the pears, sugar, ginger, and flour. Add the lemon juice and stir until the pears are coated evenly. Put mixture in a greased 13 x 9 baking dish. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. (If you work quickly, it can bake while you're preparing the topping.)

To make the topping mix together the flour, brown sugar, rolled oats, cinnamon and salt. Add the butter in small chunks and use a pastry blender or fork to mix the butter in until the mixture resembles small crumbs. (Tip: What you're going for here is small chunks of butter covered in floury, sugary stuff. I often use my fingers to create the desired texture. Chopping up the butter before adding it also helps.)

Remove pears from oven and sprinkle topping evenly over pears and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the topping is nice and browned.

Enjoy this dessert with some homemade whipped cream!

Other Delectably Delicious Crisps and Cobblers:

Apple Struesel Cobbler

Pearberry Crisp

Super Easy Cobblers

Valorie Delp shares recipes and kitchen tips in the food blog, solves breastfeeding problems, shares parenting tips, and current research in the baby blog, and insight, resources and ideas as a regular guest blogger in the homeschooling blog. To read more articles by Valorie Delp, click here.

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Learn more about Valorie Delp

Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line.

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