Ree Drummond's Pear Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream

One of my favorite blogs to read is Ree Drummond's, The Pioneer Woman. I love that she lives on a ranch in Oklahoma, homeschools four kids, is a great cook, writer, photographer and all around totally funny gal. She just published her first cookbook and is currently on a book tour around the U.S.

I was lucky enough to hear her speak at the BlogHer conference in San Francisco - because before that, I had never heard of her. Reading her blog brightens my day. I can relate to her life as wife, mother, cook, blogger. I work full-time at an office. She works full-time teaching her four kids, cooking and writing. Our lives are hectic - and we love it that way.

I recently saw this post for Pear Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream and knew I had to make it. I love all fruit/crumble/crisp desserts. They are generally really easy to make and always taste deeeeeelish. This one is no different.

The only problem I had was two of my four pears were brown in the middle. Boo hoo. So I substituted a huge honeycrisp apple for the two bad pears.  I'm happy to report that everything tasted just fine - especially when you add a scoop of yummy vanilla ice cream. I don't make my own ice cream. Sheesh, isn't that why they have Haagen Dazs Vanilla in the store?

You really should make this. I guarantee you'll like it.

Here it is hot out of the oven.

And now it's ready to eat! Yum. One plate for me. One for you. Come and get it.

Here is my adaptation of Ree's recipe.

Apple-Pear Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream

Filling:
2 large pears
2 Honeycrisp apples
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 t. salt

Topping:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 t. cinnamon
1/2 cup pecans, very finely chopped
1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350º

1. Peel, core and dice pears.
2. Place into a large bowl and stir together with 2/3 cup sugar and 1/4 t. salt. Set aside.
3. In smaller bowl combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Stir together.
4. Drizzle melted butter gradually in the flour mixture, stirring with a fork until combined.
5. Pour pears into a greased baking dish. Top with crumb topping.
6. Bake for 30 minutes on middle rack of oven.
7. Move to top rack of oven for 10 minutes, or until topping is golden.
8. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.