Extra-Crispy Pear-Lavender Crisp

by Aimee

This post is sponsored by KitchenAid Canada.

Local apples are not quite sweet enough for my liking yet, but fortunately we have pears from neighbouring province Ontario to tide us over.

Bartlett pears have replaced peaches on my kitchen counter and the first basket I bought fulfilled their destiny in this dessert. I’m a big fan of the super simple slow cooker apple crisp (it’s a great kitchen job for kids), but lately I’ve been craving a really crumbly topping. An extra-crisp fruit crisp.

Fortunately, one of my favourite Canadian bloggers, Charmian, recently released a cookbook titled The Messy Baker and I found just what I was looking for between its beautiful covers.

Charmian’s original crisp recipe (see it on Oprah!) is for high summer, featuring blueberries and peaches. Totally delicious? Yes indeed, only it was the creative topping on her ‘Extra Crispy Crisp’ that caught my attention. In a stroke of genius, she uses panko crumbs in place of flour or oats and the result is a buttery, lighter-than-air topping that is very crispy indeed.

I know there blogging superlatives are a dime a dozen these days, but I think it is the best crisp I have ever made! Enjoyed warm from the pan (is there any other way?) it was the mid-morning snack that turned into lunch. Oops.

I find pears to be plenty sweet when cooked, so I went easy on the sugar in the filling. I crumbled in a little dried lavender from my patio pots as the flowers are finishing on a few plants and that means harvest. Lavender needs a light hand or your dish can begin to taste like soap.

I couldn’t leave out cinnamon, partially because I wanted my kitchen to smell like fall and the spice marries so perfectly with pears. It also helps to ensure that the lavender doesn’t stage a flavour takeover.

But seriously, this panko topping. It nearly didn’t make it on the pears, because once I tasted the combination of melted organic butter, raw cane sugar and crispy panko I wanted to finish it with a spoon then and there.

As we head into a delicious season of fall baking, closely followed by holiday treats,  I want to raise a glass and toast my double oven. It has truly been doing double duty and has given me a year of beautiful baking, roasting and slow-cooking. And I couldn’t forget proofing; homemade breads and buns have enjoyed plenty of warm naps in there, too.

KitchenAid’s Even-Heat true convection in the oven is one heck of a good system for even baking across all three racks. I now can cram several trays of granola in there and not have to worry about anything burning around the edges.

I’m pretty sure my old oven would have burnt the crisp (sorry, bad pun) out of today’s recipe and that would have been a lame start to fall baking. Remember, oven temperatures can vary quite a bit; it’s a good idea to keep a small oven thermometer like this one in the oven for extra accuracy.

Happy Baking!

DISCLOSURE:

KitchenAid Canada has compensated me for my services and my posts, but all posts represent my own opinion.

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