Bosc pears

More baking with pears

~ MaryG ~ 26 Comments

What are your favorite side-hustle ideas?

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Maybe…baking? Or blogging? Or painting watercolors? Or singing?

Nah.

Nobody would pay me money for any of my hobbies, which is fine. I’m no longer an earner. I’ve accepted that. According to my last Social Security Statement, I had reportable income every year from 1980 to 2023. That’s 43 years of paid work. According to financial planners, my husband and I have saved and invested enough money to enjoy a comfortable retirement into our 90s, barring runaway inflation or a global financial meltdown—both of which seem highly likely in our current kakistocracy. I’m not really sure I believe the financial planners, but I’m going with it. However, we’re really trying to keep our spending down these days, which brings me back to baking at home.

We tried yet another recipe with our homegrown Bosc pears: America Test Kitchen’s Pear Crisp. I did that thing where I found the recipe on ATK but I didn’t want to pay for a subscription so I signed-up for a 7-day free trial, screenshotted the recipe, then cancelled the subscription before I got charged. Is that wrong?

AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN PEAR CRISP

Ingredients

• ¾ cup coarsely chopped nuts (3 ounces/85 grams) I’m allergic to nuts so I substituted 3/4 cup of oatmeal (it was a genius substitution, if I do say so myself 😉)

• ½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour (2½ ounces/71 grams)

• ¼ cup packed light brown sugar (1¾ ounces/50 grams)

• 4 tablespoons granulated sugar

• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg

• Table salt

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

• 1 teaspoon cornstarch

• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon

• 3 pounds (1361 grams) ripe but firm pears (6-7 medium)

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Process nuts, flour, brown sugar, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon salt in food processor until nuts are finely chopped, about nine 1-second pulses. Drizzle butter over flour mixture and pulse until mixture resembles crumbly wet sand, about five 1-second pulses, pausing halfway through to scrape down sides and bottom of workbowl. Set aside while preparing fruit.

Because I substituted oatmeal for nuts, there was no need to use a food processor. I used only a fork to make the topping.

2. Whisk remaining 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and pinch of salt together in large bowl. Peel pears, then halve and core. Cut each half into 4 wedges and then cut in half crosswise (pieces should be about 1 1/2 inches). Gently toss pears with sugar mixture and transfer to 8-inch-square baking dish.

Not gonna lie, this step was a pain in the neck. My husband bought a tool to scoop out cores of the peeled pears, but forgot he had it, so he did all this work with a paring knife.

3. Sprinkle topping evenly over fruit, breaking up any large chunks. Bake until fruit is bubbling around edges and topping is deep golden brown, 27 to 32 minutes. Cool on wire rack until warm, at least 15 minutes, and serve.

This is the unbaked version. We ended up leaving it in the oven for the full 32 minutes and pears were perfect. Tender and sweet.

VERDICT: Good. 👍 The topping works well with the pears. I had it hot with ice cream for dessert (yum) and also cold for a snack that actually felt relatively “healthy” with all that fruit and oatmeal. It’s not as exciting as the Dutch Pear Pie or Pear Cobbler, but I would make it again.

Related posts:

A Baking Post (Dutch Pear Pie) featured on Freshly Pressed

Another Baking Post (Pear Cobbler)

Stress Baking (Puff Pastry Apple Strudel)

Fruit Trees

A Jackson (Apple Pie)

Deer me

Deer me

~ MaryG ~ 21 Comments

What are your best healthy eating habits?

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So far, the dreaded Nor’easter (windy rainstorm) has not been too bad here in non-coastal Greater Boston. Our power is still on. Most of the Bosc pears are still clinging to our tree.

The deer have been enjoying the ones that have fallen. And since I’ve never seen a fat deer, I’m going to go with “eat a lot of fruit” for my best healthy eating habit.

Mom is unconcerned with paparazzi. Bambi is a bit skittish.
Chewing
Those pears are so good, even Dad finally came out of the woods to try one.

Knock on wood that the storm doesn’t get too much worse and that coastal dwellers stay safe.

Photo credit to my husband on the last two photos and the video. He got a new phone (Google Pixel 11 XL Pro) and it’s got quite an impressive zoom feature in the camera.

Another baking post

~ MaryG ~ 22 Comments

How do you write what people actually want to read?

One of my recent posts was selected for “Freshly Pressed” on WordPress and I got some nice comments and a few new subscribers. It’s a post about baking a Dutch Pear Pie with fruit from the trees in our yard. So, welcome to anyone new here. I assume you love dessert like me.

I post about a variety of things, including baking, but mostly I just talk about whatever’s on my mind, including whatever the WordPress “daily prompt” elicits from me. I like the community here on WordPress. Most people are very kind and supportive.

We finally harvested some of the Bosc pears on our tree because a big Nor’easter (windy rainstorm) is expected this weekend.

Over 15 pounds of Bosc pears harvested and there are still many pears left on the tree.

The Bosc is the last of our fruit trees to ripen (we also have a Winesap apple and an Asian pear) and honestly, I think we should wait a bit longer to pick the rest of the pears. I don’t think the ones we picked are fully ripe yet, but that didn’t stop us from trying out another new recipe.

This recipe—for Pear Cobbler—is one I found on YouTube. I was able to screenshot the relevant information. (I’m sorry I lost track of the original creator.)

FRESH PEAR COBBLER

Pear Filling

• 4–5 cups diced pears

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons corn starch

• 1/4 cup water

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Batter

• 1 1/2 cups flour

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 cups milk

1. Combine the diced pears with the sugar, corn starch, water, and cinnamon.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and milk until combined.

3. Set the oven to 350°. Melt one stick of butter in a 9×13 baking dish.

4. Pour the batter over the melted butter (do not stir), then spoon the pear mixture on top.

5. Bake for 1 hour.

6. Serve with ice cream.

VERDICT: Very good. It think it’ll be even better next time with riper pears. We were wondering how this cobbler was going to “cobble together” since you don’t stir it, but it actually does. It’s definitely a bit of a pain to peel the pears, but you really have to with Boscs. We used a potato peeler.

Related post: Stress baking

Fruit trees

~ MaryG ~ 36 Comments

We hired the young man who plowed our driveway last winter to help install my husband’s new vegetable garden (aka The Retirement Garden), which will have four large raised beds, irrigation, and a deer fence. (Fingers crossed the kid is up to the job. The soil where the fence posts need to get sunk in is very hard.)

In the meantime, a few of the many fruit trees my husband planted about twenty years ago have survived deer and other blights and are producing fruit. And for some reason, this year, the squirrels are missing in action. Typically, they would’ve had these trees stripped by now.

I made my first ever pie from the apples in our yard yesterday.

According to Google,
“Winesap apples are a classic American heirloom variety prized for their deep, cherry-red skin, exceptionally crisp texture, and unique, tangy, wine-like flavor. Dating back to the colonial era, they are famous for an intense sweet-tart profile with spicy undertones, making them a premier choice for fresh eating, cider brewing, and baking.”
My Winesap apple pie was really good. I used the basic recipe that’s printed in the bottom of my pie plate, but these apples definitely have a complex, spicier taste than the usual store-bought varieties.
Thank you squirrels for taking a vacation this year.
Bosc pear tree
Asian pear tree
I have done some baking with our Asian pears in the past, but they’re very sweet. They’re best eaten fresh off the tree.
These beautiful pears are hanging just out of my reach, untouched by squirrels. We finally broke down and ordered a fruit picking tool so we can get these down, but it’s not being delivered until Tuesday. 😕 I really I hope we beat the squirrels to these.
And here’s a throwback photo (August 2002). Check out that harvest. My husband grew all that food! He actually remembers the exact moment he went Organic after reading the ingredients on a bag of grub killer at our first house in Canton, MA in 1995.

Growing some of our own food again has become increasingly appealing in Trump’s America. Between skyrocketing food prices, never ending news of American food supply contaminations, and now an absolutely ridiculous trade war with Canada, we want to put our sunny yard back to doing something useful.