Cranberry Pear Crumble

After a billion year long hiatus, being home on Thanksgiving break means it’s definitely time to get back on top of this blog thang. The past 3 months have included undocumented noms such as gluten-free ginger cookies, gluten-free vanilla cupcakes, PBR cupcakes, fall-flavored rice pudding, pumpkin applesauce, and more. One day they shall be engrained in HTML (high technology memory lane amirite) but for now, use your imagination.

Due to the fact that it is mid-fall and all I want to do is take a bath in mashed sweet potato, it’s a bit weird that this crumble is the first thing I’m posting. Especially because in the 48 hours I’ve been home so far, I’ve made pumpkin rolls, pumpkin pancakes, apple cider glazed sweet potatoes, sweet potato pizza, and pumpkin/craisin/choco chip cookies. I don’t have a problem, I swear. In my mind, pear + cranberries = total winter foods. I mean, I guess cranberry sauce is a thing on Thanksgiving, but still. They’re even red and green! Or…magenta and fern-colored. (Disclaimer- yes, the pear in the picture is red but that’s because I was too eager beaver and didn’t take a picture of the green ones). But despite all that, I made this for my mom and I the other night and here is what it looks like now.
…No shame.

This comes together really easily- you just toss the pears and cranberries together with some delicious things, add a ton of crumb topping, and stick it in the oven. The one thing is that the recipe called for a TON of crumb, so there was about a cup left over. I’m working on some way to use it up because everyone knows that’s the best part- butter, brown sugar, cinnamon…I melt. And it gets all crispy crunchy in the oven and smells like someone cut open an elm tree in October somewhere on a farm in Massachusetts. Also, this can easily be made vegan by using the topping from the Summer Berry Crumble I posted a while ago.


Cranberry Pear Crumble adapted from Joy the Baker

Makes 1 8×8-inch dish

For the filling

4 ripe but firm pears (I used d’anjou)

1 cup fresh cranberries

3 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

a squeeze of fresh lemon juice

For the crumb topping

1 1/3 cup flour

1 1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup oats

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed, at room temp


 


Preheat the oven to 350°F and set aside an 8×8 baking dish. First, peel and cut the pears into large chunks and place in baking dish. Then, pour the cranberries on top. Top with sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice, mix together, and set aside white you make the topping.

To make the topping, first whisk together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and oats. Add the chunks of butter and mix in with your fingers or pastry cutter until it’s well incorporated and the butter bits are the size of coarse breadcrumbs. Add about 3/4 cup of the topping mixture to the filling and toss together. Place more crumb topping over it until you can see no fruit and it looks like a fluffy bed of brown sugar crumble.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the edges are bubbly and you just can’t take it any longer. Let it cool for about 10 minutes, and then eat up! Ice cream and/or whipped cream not necessary, but encouraged. Enjoy!


So good. If you need a break from all the pumpkin things around, (I do not, but I accept that some people may be more sane than I am) make this right away! The supermarkets are brimming with bags of fresh cranberries. Here’s a picture of the final product- a day later, though. Ate too quickly to take a picture the first time. This is a theme in my life.