I’m truly shocked that this is my first dessert for a #GettingItLocal recipe. This was also made during my internship the same day I made the pumpkin soup. I’m getting pretty sick of saying that these recipes are tasty, I’m hoping you trust me by now to know that I am not going to mislead you.

This is the dessert I made for Thanksgiving, surprisingly I was accepted to dinner even though I didn’t bring my standard gingerbread cake with orange cream cheese frosting. In the past couple years, I would not be allowed to eat dinner (and Thanksgiving is my favorite meal) if I didn’t bring this cake, so I didn’t dare change the dessert. But I guess a year wiser boosts my confidence to tell my family I’ll be making something else. And I was allowed to eat, pending a pre-dinner taste test.

There’s something about cranberries that I have always loved. I long to be able to pop one in my mouth raw and not pucker my face from the tartness, but the tartness is exactly what this recipe needed when I was first looking at it. Combining sweet pears with the cutting sharpness of cranberries makes for a perfect match in dessert heaven.

Cranberry Pear Crisp

Prep Time: 15 min Cook Time: 15-20 min Serves: 4-6

Ingredients: 

Topping:

• 1 1/4 cups oatmeal
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter (If you want to use brown butter here, and I highly suggest it, use 1 stick)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• dash salt

Filling:

• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 5 pears, peeled, cored, diced
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• dash salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. For the topping: melt the butter and mix all ingredients. Set aside.
3. For the filling: melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.
4. Add butter to filling ingredients, toss to coat.
5. Add fruit filling to a pie dish and cook for 10 min.
6. Add topping and bake for 15-20 minutes until the pears are soft and topping is golden
7. Enjoy! (with vanilla bean ice cream if you have it)

Happy Nourishing!