I’m at the point where I’m ready for Spring to come, which is a dangerous way to feel in Alberta at the beginning of February. Technically I have three months left of winter weather, two and a half if I’m lucky. So what do you do when the winter seems endless and you’ve done all the fun winter things you can think of to do? You bake, of course. You bake and you eat. My family doesn’t seem to be complaining;)

If you’re anything like me, you’ve likely made fruit crisp a million different ways by now, so what’s so great about this recipe? Those fragrant, vanilla-spiced pears are exactly what you want to eat in the middle of winter, whether it’s for breakfast with a dollop of yogurt OR dessert with a dollop of ice cream! The other bonus is that the recipe is made without refined flours or sugars (only 2 tbsp of maple sugar in the whole recipe!) so if you care about stuff like that, you’re going to love this! But Matt and the kids (who definitely don’t care about things like that) gave it their seal of approval too, so this is the kind of dessert anyone can get behind!

Recipe

Pear Vanilla Crisp

Ingredients

8 pears, halved and cored
1 tbsp lemon juice
3/4 cup salted butter, cold
1 1/2 cups oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch of all spice
1/4 cup whole roasted almonds, roughly chopped
1/4 cup salted butter
1 vanilla bean
pinch of salt
3 tbsp maple sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Using a mandolin, thinly slice pears (don’t worry too much about how perfect they look!) and gently toss in the lemon juice (I do this right in the baking dish, but you could also use a large bowl for this step). Arrange the slices vertically, skin side up, in a large baking or casserole dish. I start at the perimeter, and work my way in towards the centre. Set aside.
Cut the cold butter into cubes. In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, mix together the cold butter, oats and spices at medium-high speed. Add the almonds. Once everything is incorporated (it might still look like a couple blobs, thats ok) Cover the bowl and refrigerate until ready to use. Don’t skip refrigerating the mixture…it’s necessary to make the crumble break apart properly!
Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and use the knife to scrape out the inside.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter, and then add the inside of the vanilla bean, the remaining pod and a pinch of salt. Whisk continually, even as the butter bubbles. Remove from heat when the butter is caramel in colour.
Remove the vanilla bean pods. Using a pastry brush, brush the pears liberally with the vanilla butter.
Take the butter/oat mixture from the fridge and crumble the large chunks into smaller chunks in the bowl. Spread the topping evenly over the pears. Sprinkle the top with maple sugar.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until crumble topping is brown and pears are tender.
Serve warm, with ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream or yogurt. Spoon the “sauce” from the bottom of the pan on top to finish.