I splurged on a new cookbook last week and I just can't put it down. Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros is a beautiful combination of recipes, photography and family memories. Her recipes are written in a very casual and accessible way. It feels like "common sense" cooking to me. I love that her measurements are sometimes described as "a child's fistful of chopped nuts" or "blobs of butter". It feels like she's saying my meal is going to be a little different than hers and that's not only okay...that's the way it should be. It makes me feel like if I tweak her recipe a wee bit, I won't be bungling something...it will still be yummy...it will just be more ours. Local berries are starting to make their way into our markets so I went hunting for a berry recipe for an Easter weekend brunch. I ended up making her Pear and Berry Crisp...twice. If you count that I also made gluten free versions...then I actually made 4 crisps. On the second day I used a little less sugar...and my friend Kim suggested that she might not use any at all. That way you would get a little more of the tartness from the berries to contrast the natural sweetness of the pears. I have included her recipe below. To make the gluten free version, I substituted Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose flour and added 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum to the flour.
Pear and Berry Crisp from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros
3 large pears
1 cup of mixed berries
1/3 cup superfine sugar
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 pound (1 stick), plus 3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Generously butter a 14 by 8 1/2 by 2 1/2-inch (or a 13 by 9-inch) ovenproof dish. Peel, core, and slice the pears, and put them in the dish. Mix in the berries and scatter half the superfine sugar over the fruit. Mix together the flour, brown sugar, and the other half of the superfine sugar in a bowl. Add the butter and vanilla and rub them in with your fingertips, working until the mixture isn’t smooth but looks like damp clustery sand. Your fingers might be tired. Scatter the topping over the fruit to cover it completely in a good thick layer. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the top is nicely golden and some berry juice has oozed up a bit over teh crust and darkened it here and there. Let it cool down a touch and then serve warm with whipped cream, a bowl of custard, vanilla ice cream, or Greek yogurt. Yield: 8 servings