Apple, Pear and Cranberry Crisp

I have a few posts I have been working in this week, but in the meantime, here’s a healthy dessert for your weekend!  
When I make a fruit crisp, I often use this recipe from allrecipes.com .   I found it one day over a year ago when I didn’t have enough apples for an apple crisp but I had pears.
You can virtually do whatever you want with this.  I’ve used raisins instead of dried cranberries and I actually usually use raw cranberries that I cook down, so I use that juice too.  The natural cranberry juice and the lime juice make a nice semi-tart fruit base that combined with the semi-buttery and sweet crumbly crust is delicious!
I have a few other substitutions: whole wheat flour is I use in all my baking instead of white flour and lime juice instead of lemon juice, because we usually have this instead of lemon. 
This time around, I sprinkled ground cinnamon on the apples and nutmeg on the pears that sat in lime juice before mixing everything together in the prepared dish.  However, my little almost two-year old helper was a little over zealous with the cinnamon and the taste was a bit much for my husband.  So go a little easy if it’s not to your liking.

Here’s the recipe (substitutions in bold):
  • 2 Rome Beauty apples – peeled, cored, and cubed  / I used 1 Golden Delicious and 1/2 of a HoneyCrisp

  • 2 Comice pears – peeled, cored, and cubed  / I used 2 BOSC Pears

  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries / I used fresh cranberries that I boiled in some water.

  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour /  Whole Wheat Flour

  • 2 tablespoons honey 

  • 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice 

  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour / Whole Wheat Flour

  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 

  • 1/2 cup quick cooking oats 

  • 1/4 cup ground walnuts / I DID NOT use Walnuts … Didn’t have any

  • 1/2 cup butter . / I used Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks 
  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease an 8 inch baking dish.
  • Mix the apples, pears, cranberries, 1 tablespoon flour, honey, and lemon juice in the prepared dish.
  • In a bowl, mix 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, oats, walnuts, and butter to the consistency of coarse crumbs. Sprinkle loosely over the fruit mixture.
  • Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until brown and crisp on top.

Let me know if you liked it, what substitutions did you use?  Do you have a favorite fruit crisp recipe?  Share it!  I’d love to try it! 🙂

    Happy Weekend Baking!