My lastest work project on the dessert front included a huge bag of locally grown pears, picked by the folks at the residents.
The cook and I mulled over the possibilities we had within our bugetary limitations, and decided simple was best: pear crisp. Who doesn't love a good crisp? And my strawberry rhubarb one from a couple of weeks ago was a hit, so we thought it would be a good bet. (Incidentally, the chocolate strawberry shortcakes were also a HUGE hit!)
What I hadn't anticipated was the nuisance of peeling all the pears, and I had some time restrictions to work around. After I'd made my daily muffin quota, I had to peel like a maniac to get enough pears for a crisp that had to feed about 35 people. The cook helped me peel, but I knew it wasn't going to work. Luckily, there was a whole bucket of apple pie filling in the fridge, so I decided to make this a pear & apple crisp.
I gave myself 35 minutes to peel as many pears as I could. To this I added 1 cup of brown sugar, 4 tbsp cornstarch, and some cinnamon & nutmeg.
Then I scooped in a whole pile of apple pie filling. This stuff is so good I could just eat it by the spoonful!
I then mixed the pear & apple fillings together in the pan.
Onto the topping: 4 cups oats, 1 cup flour, 1 cup packed brown sugar, cinnamon & nutmeg, and about 1 1/4 cups cold margarine (no butter at this place, but I make do).
It smelled great as it cooked, let me tell you! Alas, my shift ended before it came out of the oven, so I'll have to wait for my next shift to get any feedback. I'm pretty confident that they liked this, though!
