Apple crisp is one of my favourite desserts of all time. (I’m a simple girl, ok?) I remember being a teenager and asking for a crisp with candles instead of birthday cake. I have the apple crisp recipe from my old Betty Crocker cookbook memorized and can make it at a moment’s notice.
As I have gotten older and become more experimental with my cooking I have tried crisp variations of all kinds, including apple cranberry, apple pineapple (with a little lime juice and nutmeg this is SOO good), mixed berry, peach, peach and ginger, the list goes on. But somehow in all of this I had never made one with pears.
So I decided it was time to remedy that and came up with this little recipe.
I have adapted this recipe to reflect my healthier, no-sugar-except-for-honey-and-maple-syrup way of eating, so much so that I don’t think Betty Crocker would recognize it if she saw it. She does deserve the credit for getting me started, though. Thanks, Betty!
Easy Peasy Pear Crisp
- 4 – 6 pears, cored and sliced (I like mine unpeeled, but you can do as you like)
- 3 Tablespoons of honey
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
- 1/2 cup ground pecans (any nut will do, you can experiment!)
- 1 cup rolled oats, ground into flour
- 1/4 cup butter or coconut oil
- allspice and cloves, to taste
Arrange the pears in the bottom of a baking pan. 
Drizzle with honey, vanilla and nutmeg and stir to combine.
In a separate bowl combine the nuts, oatmeal, butter and spices and mix with a fork until crumbly. ( A pastry blender or your fingers can help speed up this process). Sprinkle over the fruit.
Bake at 350 degrees for about half an hour, or until the crisp is nicely browned and the pears are soft. This is nice served with a little whipped cream or ice cream, or even with a little drizzle of maple syrup, but I also find it delicious right out of the pan.
Ginger Pear Variation If you like ginger (as I do) try adding a piece of finely chopped candied ginger in with the pears instead of the vanilla. Yum!
Good morning, Andrea! Your pear crisp recipe looks delicious! I appreciate your step-by-step photos, too. You remember that I don’t bake (mostly because I have hypoglycemia, but also because I don’t have a husband or children to bake for). Your recipe looks yummy though so I would like to try it.
Since I am a vegetarian, can you recommend a vegan baking alternative to butter (not margarine – I don’t like it and I heard that it’s not healthy anyways)? Since I’m allergic to coconut, can you also recommend a vegetable oil that would be good for baking? Since I’m asking questions, can you also recommend vegan alternatives to eggs? I do want to start “healthy baking,” but I’m a lacto-vegetarian. (I would be a vegan but I don’t like vegan cheese and vegan yogurt). I enjoyed watching cooking shows this summer, but I was frustrated that most recipes called for eggs and/or butter.
Thank you in advance. Enjoy a relaxing weekend with you husband.
P.S. I noticed that you have your post “uncategorized” – maybe you want to change that to “Cooking/Recipes?”
I do not know of any other healthful vegan alternatives to butter in baking other than coconut oil. (I agree with you on the margarine front though, definitely a substance to avoid.) Liquid oils do not always make good substitutes and in the long run butter is actually better for you than liquid oils because they tend to be overprocessed (other than olive oil, which is a strong taste to add to baking although I do have vegan cookbooks that swear by it so you yould give that a try.) Substituting oil for butter will also produce a different product, since butter is solid at room temperature and oils are not. (And butter is a milk product like yogurt and cheese, it doesn’t contain any other animal ingredients, so it might be worth a try if you want to recreate some of the cooking show recipes. ) If you are just beginning to bake you are probably better off looking for vegan recipes than trying to adapt non-vegan ones. As for eggs in baking there is a very easy substitute – 1 Tablespoon of ground flaxseed mixed with 3 Tablespoons of water = one egg. This works for everything with little difference in end product (baking that is, it wouldn’t work for cooking!)
Thanks for catching my “uncategorized” mistake! Have a great week-end!