Maggie Monday: Falling into a Pear and Apple Crumble

Typically when I get a new post from Maggie, I get five or six. As her posts go up once a week, the submissions last a while. Maggie sent me a double batch last fall and this was among them. I think this recipe works well for this cold January as well. Welcome back Maggie…..

I was looking for a new fall recipe, and found this one on the Betty Crocker website. I don’t often buy pears- not a huge fan of the texture, but this recipe looked good. I am a sucker for anything that has “Crumble” in the title. So, I decided to give it a shot.

Success! This is a repeater. I found the filling a bit tart, so I increased the sugar a bit there. You can cut it back if you wish, but I prefer this on the sweet side. The topping was great- a nice crunch, but not doughy. I was a bit skeptical of the “double cooking”- having to cook the filling on the stovetop before baking, but it didn’t take long, and I think makes this work- it softens the fruit to reduce baking time, which keeps the topping from burning. And it also gives the filling a chance to thicken up and not rely on the baking process for that as well. I might experiment with the spices in the topping- perhaps using just cinnamon, or maybe ginger and cinnamon and eliminating the nutmeg and allspice. We’ll see!

Overall, this is really good, and I will make it again.  Son #1 deemed it a success. Of course, he would love canned cat food if I warmed it up and told him I made it.

Pear and Apple Crumble

What you need:

Topping

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp apple pie spice

½ cup cold butter

3 Tbs sugar

3 Tbs packed light brown sugar

Filling

3 large apples- I used 2 granny smith and one honey crisp

3 large pears- ripe but firm

2 Tbs butter

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup lemon juice

2 Tbs cornstarch

½ tsp ground cinnamon

What you do:

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix topping first- in a bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and apple pie spice. (if you don’t have apple pie spice, just use ½ tsp cinnamon, ¼ tsp nutmeg, ¼ tsp allspice). Using a pastry blender, cut in the cold butter until it looks crumbly. Stir in the sugar and brown sugar, then set aside.

Peel and core apples and pears. Cut each into quarters, then cut each quarter into bite-sized bits. Keep apples and pears separate. In a dutch oven or large saucepan melt 2 Tbs butter, add sugar and 2 Tbs lemon juice. Heat over medium heat until blended; stir in apples, and partly cover, cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add pears and cook another 2 minutes. In a small bowl combine remaining 2Tbs lemon juice, cornstarch and cinnamon. Add to the fruit mixture. Cook 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly until thickened. Spoon filling into a deep dish pie plate. Spread topping evenly over the filling. Place pie plate on a cookie sheet.

Bake about 40 minutes until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbly.