Pear Apple Cranberry Crisp |
This post isn't so much a recipe as a formula. A formula for a wonderful, EASY crisp which you can make with just about ANY fruit. Serve it for dessert (with vanilla ice cream if at all possible) or as a side dish next to meat or chicken. I make it almost every week and we never get tired of it because I use a different combination of fruit every week. For this week's crisp, I used three pears, two apples, and about a cup of cranberries. I mixed in some extra sugar to balance the tartness of the cranberries.
Any-Fruit Crisp
This is a basic formula which you can use with lots of different combinations of fruits. I mostly use fresh seasonal fruit but I've also had really good results with frozen cranberries,cherries, and blueberries. My favorite combinations:
- pears, apples, and cranberries
- peaches, nectarines, and blueberries
- apples (granny smith or any other firm favorites)
- apples and pears
- strawberries, blueberries, and apples
- plums and apples
- peaches, apples, and cherries
about 6 cups of your favorite fruit, pitted, peeled and sliced as necessary (see introductory note for some suggestions)
2 tablespoons flour
juice of one lemon
1-2 tablespoons sugar, optional, if the fruit is tart or if you like a sweeter crisp
1 stick margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup pecans or slivered almonds, broken into small pieces
Preheat the oven to 350*.
Combine the prepared fruit, lemon juice, flour and salt in a Pyrex pie plate. Mix well. (Here's my favorite on Amazon.)
In a mixing bowl, combine the margarine, brown sugar, oatmeal, flour and nuts . Crumble the mixture with your fingers to make a coarse crumb. Scatter the crumbs evenly over the fruit. Bake for about an hour, till the top is beginning to brown.
Serve warm or refrigerate for up to three days. If you are refrigerating it, bring it back to room temperature before serving.
i use whatever is in season (in summer, whatever is at the farmers' market); i don't use margarine in the batter though. I have a good recipe that uses oil and it comes out pretty good.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sima, that's a great tip. Can you post the crisp recipe that uses oil? Would love to try it.
ReplyDeleteEsther Shemtob says that she uses apples and craisins! I've never tried dried fruit in crisp but she's got me curious! Thanks, Esther!
ReplyDeleteThis looks fabulous. What do you suggest, I substitute for the oatmeal. My husband has celiac and is limited in his choices.
ReplyDeleteSweet and Savory: Thanks for visiting! Corn meal or brown rice flour would probably work. Do they make quinoa flakes? I seem to remember hearing of those. I think you might try increasing the nuts just a bit (maybe to 3/4 cup) and substituting 3/4 corn meal or brown rice flour (or quinoa flour) for the cup of oats and flour.
ReplyDelete