Vanilla, Pear, and Cinnamon Crumble

September 8, 2008 /

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I was watching reruns of Take Home Chef last week, and Curtis made a yummy looking Pear Crumble. There are some ladies at the farmers’ market who have the tastiest pears, so when I went this Saturday, I got some specifically for the crumble. For my money, a crumble beats a cake any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Mmmm. Fruit and crunchy topping. Delicious. Seems like it would be good with nectarines or peaches, too. Even plums. So I made this yesterday, and we enjoyed it after dinner. It was good, though I kind of thought the proportions were off…I think I would use twice as many pears next time. I wonder if the pears he had were a LOT bigger than the ones I had? Could be. Anyway, give this one a try.

Vanilla, Pear and Cinnamon Crumble

Ingredients:

For the fruit filling:

1/3 cup/70 g granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
4 ripe Bosc pears, peeled, each cut into 8 wedges, and cores removed
1 cinnamon stick

For the crumb topping:

3/4 cup/120 g all purpose flour
1/2 cup/105 g granulated sugar
1/2 cup/50 g old-fashioned oats
Pinch of salt
1 stick/113 g chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup/70 g sliced almonds, coarsely chopped

Vanilla ice cream

Method:

To make the fruit filling:

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Place the sugar and salt in an 8-inch-/20-cm-square baking dish. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the sugar. Stir to blend the vanilla seeds into the sugar. Add the pears and toss to coat.

Arrange the mixture evenly over the dish, tucking the cinnamon stick and vanilla bean halves beneath the pears. Set aside while you prepare the crumb topping.

To make the crumb topping:

In a medium-size bowl, mix the flour, sugar, oats and salt to blend. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour mixture until moist clumps form. Mix in the almonds.

Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the pear mixture. Bake for one hour, or until the fruit is tender and the topping is golden brown.

Allow the crumble to stand at room temperature for 10 minutes to cool slightly. Spoon the crumble into bowls and serve with vanilla ice cream.

10 Comments

  • Tea

    September 8, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    Thanks for dropping by my blog! We don’t have pears growing in Alaska but we do get them at the store. I think pears are underrated. My mom sent some up to me from the Harry & David catalog and I don’t think that I ever tasted anything so flavorful in my life. The flesh is something that I don’t normally like with a grainy texture.

    Next year I am going to order fresh figs because I have never tried them before.

  • Liz

    September 8, 2008 at 2:38 pm

    Mmmmmm. Once again you have me longing for free time in my kitchen… 🙂 I have apples that have been begging for cinnamon and sugar–perhaps I’ll find the time to try this with them!

  • J

    September 8, 2008 at 3:17 pm

    The place we tried to buy last year had a tiny little patio, but somehow they had a beautiful little pear tree just outside the door. And maybe a fig tree as well, I’m not positive. Sigh.

    Tea, you’re right, pears are underrated! I think because some people eat them when they’re still crispy, like an apple, and then they’re relatively tasteless. And they ripen from the inside, so an overripe pear will have a gross brown middle to it. So maybe people have had bad experiences? Oh, but when they’re ripe, they can be so sweet and light, the perfect dessert. Mmmm. I used to poach them in Zinfandel wine with mint sometimes. Maybe I should try that again…

    Liz, one of these days we’ll get you in the kitchen again. Crumbles are pretty quick, so you wouldn’t need MUCH time. The most time consuming thing was slicing up the pears, and that didn’t take long at all.

  • Sleepynita

    September 9, 2008 at 1:34 pm

    You mean there is food on Take Home Chef?

    Damn

    I never get past Curtis in his white t-shirt on that show – food seems SO secondary….. maybe it is the pregnancy hormones?

    Feel free to pop by my blog and try to help name my baby.

  • hellomelissa

    September 11, 2008 at 4:42 am

    i agree… i love a fruit cobbler any day over a cake. unless, of course, that cake is tiramisu. a GOOD tiramisu, not one of those fancy knock-offs.

    our friend bernard got to attend a take home chef dinner once. he said it was meh. and very staged.

    i’ll try the recipe! but with more pears, just for you.