We had Asian pears coming out of our ears this week! There was a point while peeling them last week that we just said, enough! and started to can them. So, we had a few left over. They sat in a brown paper bag waiting their turn, and their turn finally came–via a cobbler! I also had some left over raspberries from the market that I threw in. What a great way to use good, left over fruit in your kitchen. It makes me feel like I am being less wasteful while still being able to enjoy the process of baking and tasting something delicious and sweet:).
First, I browned a few tablespoons of butter in my iron skillet. I then sliced down the middle a vanilla bean, scooped out some of the beans into the butter, then threw the entire thing in to the butter to simmer. While the butter was browning on low, I cut up the rest of the pears, then threw them into the pan with some raspberries. I let the whole thing simmer on low, stirring every now and then to get everything nice and coated with their juices. While the fruit was simmering, I mixed up a bowl of mostly oats (2-3 handfuls), a couple heaping tablespoons of whole wheat flour, a couple heaping tablespoons brown sugar, small handful of pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and unsweetened coconut flakes. I chopped up a few more tablespoons of butter, mashed the whole thing together with my hands, threw it on top of the fruit, then placed the whole skillet into a preheated oven of 350 degrees F. I let it bake for a half hour.
(I left the vanilla bean in there even while baking to really infuse the whole thing with great vanilla undertones…yum! Then just discard it when you find it while serving:)
You can try this with most any fruit: apples, pears, berries, plums, whatever you have around your kitchen! It came out really tasty too. It was fun and super easy to make with very little clean up (always a bonus!). You can also use other spices like ginger (fresh or powdered), cinnamon (sticks or regular), cloves, cardamon, and vanilla. I really liked how vanilla-y this was, it was a really wonderful compliment to the Asian pear and raspberry taste–I didn’t want to mingle it with anything else! When experimenting like this, try to keep your list of ingredients simple, and maybe stick with one–no more than two–spices. You might be surprised with how good something fresh can be when paired with only one other flavor. Or, you might want to try it differently next time. Either way, it’s a win 
.
Happy Weekend!
