Pear, Apple, and Cranberry Crisp

The crisp chill in the air is a sure sign that fall is here. Our first day of cold weather hit last week, putting me in the mood for something warm and fruity. I wanted something that included pears, and happened upon Ina Garten's Pear, Apple and Cranberry Crisp recipe. This was a terrific follow-up to our chicken & gravy & biscuit dinner last Friday night.

This recipe was very good-- since I was cooking for two I cut the recipe in half, and we had enough for five desserts.

You begin by peeling, coring, and chopping the apples and pears, and then you add the dried cranberries, cinnamon, sugar, flour, orange juice and zest, and lemon juice and zest. The tart cranberries really help balance out the sweetness, and the orange juice gives the dish a hint of something different. I didn't have any nutmeg so I couldn't put any in my filling.

Gently mix everything up and transfer it to a baking dish.

Up next is my favorite part of the dish-- the crisp topping! It's easy enough, combine your diced, cold butter with brown sugar, oats, granulated sugar, and flour.

I used a fork to mix everything together (but Ina recommends using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer. Personally, I didn't feel like get a huge mixing bowl dirty when I could mix the topping up in a smaller bowl. Maybe KitchenAid needs to develop smaller mixing bowls for its stand mixers...)

Once you're topping is all mixed together, pour it over fruit.

The recipe calls for baking the dish in a preheated 350-degree oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour. This is also a good dish to make ahead-- I put it together about 3 hours before I baked it (and kept it in the oven for 50 minutes). The fruit was soft but had enough texture so you knew it came from fresh fruit and not out of a can.

We ate this with fresh whipped cream, but of course you couldn't go wrong with ice cream. 

Golden brown and bubbly!

This recipe is going into my recipe box. It was easy to prepare, fool proof, and can be made ahead of time. Click here to view the entire recipe for Pear, Apple, and Cranberry Crisp.