A pear, wild cranberry, and vanilla sugar crumble recipe Cooking

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I thought this would be a nice autumn dessert, especially for potlucks (you can use conventional cranberries if you're not in Alaska :))

Serves 8

¾ cup (180 mL) all-purpose flour ¾ cup (180 mL) old-fashioned (slow-cooking) rolled oat flakes ¾ cup (180 mL) loosely packed dark brown sugar ¾ cup (180 mL) butter, cold, cut into small pieces Seeds of 1 vanilla bean, hull reserved for another use* ¼ cup (60 mL) loosely packed light brown sugar ¼ cup (60 mL) granulated sugar 1 Tbsp (15 mL) cornstarch ¼ tsp (1 mL) ground mace 5–6 medium-sized ripe but firm pears (Bartlett or Anjou) 3 cups (700 mL) fresh cranberries†

What you do

1 Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Butter a large 2½ quart (2.5 L) shallow baking dish, preferably ceramic. The trick to the best crumble topping, I read somewhere, is in the fingers. Use your fingers—the warmth of your skin will melt the butter into the right size bits.

1. To make the topping, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar and butter in a mixing bowl and cut together until the largest pieces are about the size of the oats. Use your fingers to rub the ingredients together until the mixture forms crumbly dough. The crumble can be made up to 2 days ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator. (Here we go again with the refrigerator. Why do recipes always say this? Can anyone wait that long for dessert?)

2. To make the filling, in a large bowl, stir together the vanilla seeds (or powder and/or extract) sugars, cornstarch and mace.

3. Peel and core the pears and cut them into eighths. Add the pears and cranberries to the mixing bowl with the filling in it, and toss gently to thoroughly coat the fruit.

4. Scatter the fruit mixture in the baking dish, then crumble the oat mixture over top, distributing it evenly.

5. Bake the crumble for 35–45 minutes for a shallow dish, 45–55 minutes for a deeper casserole, or until the top is crisp and golden and the filling can be seen bubbling up through the cracks.

6. Cool at least 15 minutes before serving, then serve warm or at room temperature

Submitted October 08, 2016 at 12:28AM by ffoxpack http://ift.tt/2cXy4fo Cooking