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| You can buy fresh pears at the store or poach them from your neighbor. Shhh! |
Another yummy seasonal treat is anything with cranberries! If your only experience with cranberries is that gelatinous blob that you plop out of a can for Thanksgiving, let me expand your horizons.
Frozen, dried or fresh cranberries are a tart and tangy pop of flavor you can add to a lot of desserts. This is one of them.
Serves 9
Ingredients:
Topping -
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup crushed gingersnap cookies (I used the store brand.)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp allspice
pinch of salt
1 stick butter
Filling -
2 lbs pears peeled, cored, and cut into chunks
1 1/2 cups cranberries (fresh or frozen or 1 cup dried)
1 tbsp lemon juice
zest from half a lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
If you are baking immediately, preheat the oven to 350.
Mix together the fruit, lemon juice and zest, and vanilla. Separately mix together the cornstarch and sugar, then blend into the fruit mix. Spread out into greased 9" square baking dish. (If you double the recipe, as I often do, it fits in a 9.5x13.5" baking dish. This is an odd one it seems as I only have one baking dish this size. The rest are 9x13, which will also work.)
For the topping - mix together all the ingredients except the butter. (Most recipes tell you to cut up the butter and put it in the topping. I find it better to put the butter on the top in nice big pats, one per serving.)
Pour the topping out over the fruit and push to the edges. Cut a nice pat of butter and place on top of each serving. Bake for about 45 minutes. The fruit will be bubbling up. You can also cover and refrigerate until morning if you're serving this for breakfast and want to sleep in a bit. ;-)
Top with a scoop of ice cream or dollop of fresh whipped cream. Enjoy!
White Cedar Inn bed and Breakfast 178 Main Street Freeport, Maine 04032