Any-Fruit Crisp

Pear Apple Cranberry Crisp

This post isn't so much a recipe as a formula. A formula for a wonderful, EASY crisp which you can make with just about ANY fruit. Serve it for dessert (with vanilla ice cream if at all possible) or as a side dish next to meat or chicken. I make it almost every week and we never get tired of it because I use a different combination of fruit every week. For this week's crisp, I used three pears, two apples, and about a cup of cranberries. I mixed in some extra sugar to balance the tartness of the cranberries.

Any-Fruit Crisp
This is a basic formula which you can use with lots of different combinations of fruits. I mostly use fresh seasonal fruit but I've also had really good results with frozen cranberries,cherries, and blueberries. My favorite combinations: 

• pears, apples, and cranberries
• peaches, nectarines, and blueberries
• apples (granny smith or any other firm favorites)
• apples and pears
• strawberries, blueberries, and apples
• plums and apples
• peaches, apples, and cherries

about 6 cups of your favorite fruit, pitted, peeled and sliced as necessary (see introductory note for some suggestions)
2 tablespoons flour
juice of one lemon
1-2 tablespoons sugar, optional, if the fruit is tart or if you like a sweeter crisp
1 stick margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup pecans or slivered almonds, broken into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 350*.

Combine the prepared fruit, lemon juice, flour and salt in a Pyrex pie plate. Mix well. (Here's my favorite on Amazon.)

In a mixing bowl, combine the margarine, brown sugar, oatmeal, flour and nuts . Crumble the mixture with your fingers to make a coarse crumb. Scatter the crumbs evenly over the fruit. Bake for about an hour, till the top is beginning to brown.

Serve warm or refrigerate for up to three days. If you are refrigerating it, bring it back to room temperature before serving.