Time for Pears
Fall harvest means apples, but ours are already gone, and pears. I wrote about summer being done, and going to go try a new variety of pears. They are called 'Tosca' and they are so good! No idea whether I will ever see them again, but I hope they catch on. These were advertised and brought in from a particular farm, and I was curious to try them. (They were from Top Foods.)
So this is my report. They are the size of a small Bartlett, you know, the ones that don't get big around the bottom, and these don't turn yellow: the green just goes paler and takes a slight yellowish tinge. The ones in the store were already at the eating or eat-tomorrow stage. The flesh looks like an Anjou but without the grainy feel, but not as bright white as a Bartlett. They are very juicy, make sure you have a napkin! They are very sweet and then in those best spots, intensely flavorful. The ad terms them as having an "exotic flavor" and I guess that would serve. I can't define it, but I sure swooned a little. I think they would be fabulous in recipes, but unless I can buy some more, I don't think there will be any left that long. Maybe I'd better go make something!
I like a really good Bartlett, granting that not all individual Bartletts are exciting. I like Anjous for cooking with, and my father loves Boscs, they are the only pear he can eat crunchy; his objection to pears is that they have no bite. I hate to break it to him, but in Oregon where they grow them, and let them ripen more before they pick them, even a Bosc doesn't crunch. These Toscas are so fabulous that I doubt he would mind that they are soft as, well, pears.
Here are two recipes for pear pie and crisp. The pear and cranberry crisp is a whomp my sister Alison made up and posted last week. She says they ate it all, through the evening, it was really good. I look forward to trying it, but I don't have cranberries at the moment. Or ever. I think I will look for some.
The pear pie is my mother's recipe, and I usually skip the pie crust and bake it as a pear crisp instead. (If you make a crisp, you can cut the recipe in half, too.) Be sure not to skip the flour tossed with the fruit, pears are too juicy to give you anything but soup if you don't.
Pear Cranberry Pecan Crisp
2 c quick-cooking oats
~2/3 c brown sugar or to taste
most of a stick of (butter would be better, but for the dairy allergy in the household, I used) Earth Balance, melted
Shakes of cinnamon to taste
about 1/2 c pecan pieces
4 large ripe Bartlett pears, sliced up
About a half cup cranberries. Note that mine were still frozen. I think next time I would mix the cranberries and brown sugar separately before throwing it all together.
Bake in a buttered or cooking-sprayed 13×9 pan at 350 for about 35 min, maybe 40, depending on oven and pan: I waited till the cranberries were split open and cooked to early-mushy-looking; the edges of the pan should be good and bubbling.
——————–
(From Alison: I thought I was making breakfast last night when I did this but there was only a very little left by the time we three went to bed. It is safe to say we were very pleased with how it came out.)
Pear Pie
6 ripe medium pears (I like Anjou or Comice in this, Bartletts work)
1/2 cup sugar
1-4 Tbl flour (depending on juiciness of pears)
1 tsp lime peel (or lemon)
3 Tbl. lime juice or lemon juice
Topping
1/2 cup each flour and sugar
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. mace
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/3 cup of butter
9-inch unbaked pie shell
For pear filling, toss ingredients together. I usually use lemon peel and lime juice, you definitely want one of them to be lime for flavor, because usually I have a bottle of lime juice in the fridge, and won't have a lime to grate. Place in pie shell if you are making a pie; in baking dish if not, sprayed with Mazola non-stick first.
For topping, mix dry ingredients, then cut in butter until crumbly and mostly uniform. Sprinkle on top of pears.
Bake at 400o for 45 minutes, or until fruit is tender and topping is dark golden brown.
Enjoy! Oh, and what's a whomp? That's just something you make up and cook. We used to ask Mom what was for dinner, and since she was an inventive cook, sometimes dinner didn't have a name from a recipe. Sometimes she would try to make up a name, but one night she was trying to decide what to call a dish, and didn't instantly come up with something, so she said, "Oh, it's just something I whomped together (or whomped up?), it doesn't have a name. It'll be good. Sit down and get ready to eat!" From that time on, anything that Mom made up was a 'whomp.' Some of them became family staples, like purple pie in the summer.
(Take a small package of blackberry or raspberry jello, dissolve and chill until soft-set; then whip1 cup very cold evaporated milk with 1 Tbl. lemon juice, like cream; fold into jello; fold in fresh blackberries--2 cups? the amount that there is enough jello-creamy mixture to hold the fruit together; and pour into graham cracker crust, and chill. Wonderful on a hot day.)
So this is my report. They are the size of a small Bartlett, you know, the ones that don't get big around the bottom, and these don't turn yellow: the green just goes paler and takes a slight yellowish tinge. The ones in the store were already at the eating or eat-tomorrow stage. The flesh looks like an Anjou but without the grainy feel, but not as bright white as a Bartlett. They are very juicy, make sure you have a napkin! They are very sweet and then in those best spots, intensely flavorful. The ad terms them as having an "exotic flavor" and I guess that would serve. I can't define it, but I sure swooned a little. I think they would be fabulous in recipes, but unless I can buy some more, I don't think there will be any left that long. Maybe I'd better go make something!
I like a really good Bartlett, granting that not all individual Bartletts are exciting. I like Anjous for cooking with, and my father loves Boscs, they are the only pear he can eat crunchy; his objection to pears is that they have no bite. I hate to break it to him, but in Oregon where they grow them, and let them ripen more before they pick them, even a Bosc doesn't crunch. These Toscas are so fabulous that I doubt he would mind that they are soft as, well, pears.
Here are two recipes for pear pie and crisp. The pear and cranberry crisp is a whomp my sister Alison made up and posted last week. She says they ate it all, through the evening, it was really good. I look forward to trying it, but I don't have cranberries at the moment. Or ever. I think I will look for some.
The pear pie is my mother's recipe, and I usually skip the pie crust and bake it as a pear crisp instead. (If you make a crisp, you can cut the recipe in half, too.) Be sure not to skip the flour tossed with the fruit, pears are too juicy to give you anything but soup if you don't.
Pear Cranberry Pecan Crisp
2 c quick-cooking oats
~2/3 c brown sugar or to taste
most of a stick of (butter would be better, but for the dairy allergy in the household, I used) Earth Balance, melted
Shakes of cinnamon to taste
about 1/2 c pecan pieces
4 large ripe Bartlett pears, sliced up
About a half cup cranberries. Note that mine were still frozen. I think next time I would mix the cranberries and brown sugar separately before throwing it all together.
Bake in a buttered or cooking-sprayed 13×9 pan at 350 for about 35 min, maybe 40, depending on oven and pan: I waited till the cranberries were split open and cooked to early-mushy-looking; the edges of the pan should be good and bubbling.
——————–
(From Alison: I thought I was making breakfast last night when I did this but there was only a very little left by the time we three went to bed. It is safe to say we were very pleased with how it came out.)
Pear Pie
6 ripe medium pears (I like Anjou or Comice in this, Bartletts work)
1/2 cup sugar
1-4 Tbl flour (depending on juiciness of pears)
1 tsp lime peel (or lemon)
3 Tbl. lime juice or lemon juice
Topping
1/2 cup each flour and sugar
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. mace
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/3 cup of butter
9-inch unbaked pie shell
For pear filling, toss ingredients together. I usually use lemon peel and lime juice, you definitely want one of them to be lime for flavor, because usually I have a bottle of lime juice in the fridge, and won't have a lime to grate. Place in pie shell if you are making a pie; in baking dish if not, sprayed with Mazola non-stick first.
For topping, mix dry ingredients, then cut in butter until crumbly and mostly uniform. Sprinkle on top of pears.
Bake at 400o for 45 minutes, or until fruit is tender and topping is dark golden brown.
Enjoy! Oh, and what's a whomp? That's just something you make up and cook. We used to ask Mom what was for dinner, and since she was an inventive cook, sometimes dinner didn't have a name from a recipe. Sometimes she would try to make up a name, but one night she was trying to decide what to call a dish, and didn't instantly come up with something, so she said, "Oh, it's just something I whomped together (or whomped up?), it doesn't have a name. It'll be good. Sit down and get ready to eat!" From that time on, anything that Mom made up was a 'whomp.' Some of them became family staples, like purple pie in the summer.
(Take a small package of blackberry or raspberry jello, dissolve and chill until soft-set; then whip1 cup very cold evaporated milk with 1 Tbl. lemon juice, like cream; fold into jello; fold in fresh blackberries--2 cups? the amount that there is enough jello-creamy mixture to hold the fruit together; and pour into graham cracker crust, and chill. Wonderful on a hot day.)
I'm not a great pear lover, but you may talk me into it. Your definition of 'whomp' reminds me of when my late wife would make dinner by gathering up odds and ends from the refrigerator. And she would say, "If you like it, don't ask for it again." We didn't know she was whomping up dinner
ReplyDeleteYou don't get a good result making crumble topping with sugar substitutes, but there are two different mixtures with sugar in this. I do make this as a crisp, substituting the sugar in the mixture which is tossed with the pears with splenda or stevia. 6 packets equal 1/4 cup of sugar, the box won't tell you that, but I did the math a long time ago. That cuts it down; my diabetic husband doesn't mind the soft-won't-brown bit and sometimes I make two dishes at the same time, dividing the topping and making my half with sugar and his with splenda.
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