Cranberry-Pear Crisp with Almonds & Ginger

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Cranberry Pear Crisp with Almonds and GingerThere were 6 pears, sitting on my kitchen table, just begging to be eaten–scratch that–made into dessert.  I decided on a making a simple crisp–you know, just baked fruit, with a buttery, oatmeal topping.  Then I started thinking about ginger and that bag of cranberries I bought only because they were front and center in the produce department and they were just so darn pretty.  Then I remembered this amazing crisp my mom made for my birthday a few years ago that had almond paste crumbled into the topping.  And then I decided to let myself get completely carried away and roll all of those elements into 1 showstopper dessert.

Sometimes it’s important to practice restraint and other times, you just need to throw it out the door.  My gingered cranberry and pear crisp with almond streusel is a very good example of when it’s a good idea to kick restraint to the curb.  In this fall crisp, pears and cranberries bake together to make a perfect sweet-tart combination.  Fresh ginger adds a pleasant amount of heat that warms the back of your throat, almost like you’re sipping bourbon.  And an abundance of almond-oatmeal crumbly crisp topping?  Don’t even get me started. [Read more…]

Strawberry Apricot Cobbler

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Strawberry Apricot Cobbler

We’ve gotten to know each other well enough that I feel I can be completely honest with you.  Want a dose of full-disclosure truthfulness?

I don’t dream in chocolate.  You’re probably never going to find a brownie archive on my site.  Sure, I’ll choke down a chocolate chip cookie from time to time and I’m not above eating nutella by the spoonful, but a really good fresh fruit cobbler or pie is the kind of dessert that actually makes me weak in the knees.

Here’s a good one: warm, just-sweet-enough baked apricots and strawberries, with a rich biscuit topping, dolloped with a spoonful of whipped cream.  Ahhhh…it was my first cobbler of the season and I was taken aback by how much I enjoyed it.  Over the winter, you forget just how good ripe stone fruits and berries are.  Then you encounter a display of fruit you haven’t seen in almost a year, throw together a cobbler, and quickly remember.

This whole cobbler was sort of an accident.  I had thought the apricots were destined for Saturday morning scones, but Saturday morning turned into Saturday afternoon, turned into Sunday evening, turned into OMG–I better do something with these apricots before it’s too late.  I snapped into action and turned them into dessert.

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