You guys might notice a little change in the way things look around here! After over three years (!!!) of having the same boring basic template, I was fed up with how amateur it looked and decided to give it a facelift. My friend Kevin was kind enough to put this together and basically do everything for me! Much better than me fumbling around for 4 days trying to do the simplest things.
I have switched from Blogger to Squarespace, and while all the content has been moved over, some of it may not be as neatly formatted. Because I have switched platforms, I have made my Blogspot website redirect automatically to here. Unfortunately, if you clicked a Pinterest photo or something that linked you to a specific post, you will not be redirected to that exact same post. It's a bit of a pain in the butt, but I don't think it should be too much of a problem because of the wonderful recipes page that lists everything according to category (i.e. breads, chocolate, fruit, etc.). There's also a search bar to find the exact post that you're looking for!
It's not a massive re-do of everything, but I find it much cleaner, simpler, more elegant, and easier to navigate. I'm just over the moon with it because I have been wanting a cleaner look for aaaages, but I didn't think I could transfer my old posts (all 173 of them!) over to a new domain, so I didn't want to start from scratch all over again! But, lo and behold, Kevin found a way and I was sold on the idea of a new look and a new platform.
I'm still getting used to the ins and outs of the new platform, so please let me know if anything seems amiss or isn't working the way it should!
In the meantime, enjoy this super easy and super tasty skillet crisp! I find that cranberries are in just about everything from October to December, but come January, they're gone! I get that they're a traditional Thanksgiving/Christmas thing but I love the little tart berries and I'd love to see them around more often, especially in the New Year! I'm sure that there's more than one person with a half-empty bag of cranberries kicking around in their freezer and I'd hate for them to sit there until next Thanksgiving! Grab some ripe pears, a handful of walnuts, and get to it!
Pear and Cranberry Crisp with Walnut Streusel
Makes 2 x 9-inch skillets
Streusel
60 g all-purpose flour
60 g almond meal
60 g brown sugar
30 g walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
60 g unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1 cm dice
Filling
500 g pears, sliced 5mm thick
200 g frozen or fresh cranberries
1 lemon, juiced
100 g brown sugar
18 g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place two 9 inch cast iron skillets on a baking sheet and set aside.
For the streusel, combine the flour, almond meal, sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon in a small bowl and mix to combine. Add the butter and use your fingertips to break the butter into smaller chunks while combining it with the dry ingredients. The mixture should resemble cornmeal, but with larger chunks. Set aside in the freezer. The streusel can be made a week ahead of time and stored in an airtight container in the freezer.
For the filling, combine the pears, cranberries, and lemon juice and toss gently to combine. In a separate bowl, combine the sugar, flour, and cinnamon and mix. Pour the dry mixture over the fruit and gently toss to combine and evenly coat the fruit.
Layer the pear slices in an overlapping circle, starting on the outside of the skillet and working your way inwards. Scatter the cranberries on top.
Sprinkle the streusel over top of the fruit and spread it out to create an even layer.
Place the baking sheet with the skillets in the oven and bake for 50 to 55 minutes, until the streusel is golden brown and the juices from the fruit are bubbling. Remove from the oven, remove the skillets from the tray, and let cool.
Eat straight from the skillet or portion onto plates. Enjoy!