It’s finally feeling like fall here in Oklahoma. Yellow and red leaves are falling from the trees after our first frost and I’ve pulled my boots and coats out of hiding. As usual, Oklahoma weather is unpredictable and tomorrow we’ll enjoy a sunny, 70 degree Thanksgiving. I’m not complaining!
Today, on Thanksgiving eve, I thought I’d share a quick fall dessert in case you’re on the hunt for last-minutes ideas. I’ve been on a stuffed vegetable kick lately (evidence: stuffed tomatoes and stuffed globe zucchini), and Joy the Baker’s peach cobbler for one inspired me to try the concept with fruit. Using a peach halve as a bowl for crispy, buttery goodness—it’s brilliant, right?
These crisps aren’t the prettiest dessert of all but they make up for their humble appearance in flavor. I based the recipe on Heidi Swanson’s recipe for plum and peach crisp recipe. She replaced some of the butter with yogurt in order to reduce the fat content, but I love the yogurt for its tang. I sweetened the dough up with a bit of maple syrup and added some autumn spices. I experimented with two kinds of apples as well as D’Anjou pears. The pears were the clear winner, with Gala apples coming in second. Thicker skinned Granny Smith apples came in last; their skin was still a little tough after baking.
Individual Pear and Apple Crisps
- Author:
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 8 (fewer if anyone wants seconds, which they will!) 1x
- Category: Dessert
These make a wonderful, quick and pretty darn healthy dessert. They’re also delicious for breakfast with a big dollop of vanilla Greek yogurt. You could also top them with vanilla bean ice cream or maple-sweetened whipped cream. Feel free to gussy them up with a sprinkle of lemon zest. No matter how you eat them, you’re going to love them!
Ingredients
- 4 D’Anjou pears or Gala apples
- Scant ½ cup rolled oats
- Scant ½ cup white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup turbinado (raw) sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons melted butter
- 2 tablespoons plain or vanilla Greek yogurt
- 2 teaspoons real maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a large baking pan (a 13×9 inch pan would work well).
- Cut the pears and/or apples in half and use a paring knife to carefully cut out the cores. Discard the cores.
- In a medium bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Use a big spoon to mix it well.
- Scoop about two tablespoons of dough onto each pear/apple half and use your hands to smush it into a mound.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is golden.
Notes
Recipe adapted from 101 Cookbooks’ plum and peach crisp recipe and inspired by Joy the Baker’s peach cobbler for one.
▸ Nutrition Information
P.s. If you’re looking for more easy last-minute Thanksgiving ideas, consider rosemary and parmesan sweet potatoes, chickpea salad (I’m making it for my family), butternut squash orzo risotto, rosemary and feta beer bread biscuits and gala and gorgonzola salad. These pumpkin pancakes would be great for breakfast, too. Hope your holiday is full of laughs and good food!
Vegetable enthusiast. Dog lover. I'm probably making a big mess in my Kansas City kitchen right now. 
NicoleD
Oh my, these are gorgeous! Stuffing the fruit is genius, for sure. That Joy really knows what’s up. I love your spin on the recipe!
Collette Osuna
These really do look yummy, and equally elegant…I can totally see these coming out on a nice silver tray over the Holidays…thank you for sharing!
Heidi
I love this idea :D I need to use up some more apples, so this looks perfect. I love that it’s like a stuffed apple, but it’s apple crisp! Pears sound delicious too, I wish I had some. I’ll be trying this with apples for sure though!
Alena
Such a cute and yummy looking dessert!
Kathy
Oklahoma sounds a lot like Washington :]
I think that’s brilliant to put a ‘stuffing’ into fruit!
Peggy
I follow allyinwondrland and she is such a big fan of your blog that I had to check you out…She’s right! Love your site and recipe!! Thank you. :-)
kate
Glad you found my blog, Peggy! Thanks for commenting. :)
Katrina
Mmm these sound so yummy!
kris
Yum! Great idea! Love the Greek yogurt and maple syrup combo. Leaves are starting to change here in Texas too. Seems so late to me! There’s already snow on the ground in my hometown. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving Kate!
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Heidi @foodiecrush
Love that you did the exploration for me: pears v. apples. Could be the biggest decision of the season. I’m thinking breakfast!
la domestique
Happy Thanksgiving, Kate! I like the idea to serve these for breakfast. Yum.
Maria@Orchard Bloom
yum! these look delicious and beautiful :)
Eloise
Lovely fall ideas, especialy useful for small gatherings and they could be personalised really easily adding coconut/nuts etc to some and leaving off others.
Beautiful blog, so lovely to find vegetarian inspiration for me thats current and lovely.
kate
Great ideas, Eloise! I hope you’ll try making the pear/apple crisps. Thanks for commenting!
Ashley@BakerbyNature
What a super perfect dessert idea! I bet they smell amazing baking too, eh?!
Hope you had a wonderfully warm Thanksgiving, Kate!
Andrea
I quartered (!!) this recipe and just ate a pear for a snack! Soo yummy! I loved this idea, brilliant :) I’ll make this again but the whole recipe.. I like someone’s idea further up that these would be good to break out at a gathering! Wouldn’t hurt to add some vanilla bean ice cream either :) Thanks for the awesome recipe!
jyjoh
What beautiful food! I can’t wait to try some of these amazing recipes. Your photographs are lovely.
The picture of Cookie on this page, btw, looks very much like a Catahoula (“leopard dog”); maybe part of the mix?
Kate
You know, she does look a lot like a catahoula, but she’s so little! She’s just under 20 pounds. The vet guessed party Australian shepherd, but who knows?
Leah Kerbs
I made these tonight and they were delicious!! I sprinkled a little brown sugar on top before baking them, yum! Thanks for sharing!!
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Kate
Thank you, Leah! Glad you enjoyed the crisps!
Elizabeth
I wonder how critical the flour is to this recipe? I’m looking for a stuffed apple recipe for a friend with gluten sensitivity. This was looking perfect until I came to the listing for the flour.
Kate
Good question, Elizabeth. I haven’t tried substituting anything else for the whole wheat flour, but I suspect that a gluten-free flour blend or oat flour would be good replacements. You could probably just add more oats in place of the flour but the crisp toppings would likely be more crumbly and granola like. Please let me know if you give them a try!
Lia
I made this yesterday- SO GOOD! This also inspired me to do a quick pumpkin “pie” filling with a little bit of pumpkin, cream cheese (both left over from the alfredo sauce), and the flour and oats. That too came out delicious.
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Kate
Oh, I want to try your pumpkin pie concoction! Cream cheese and pumpkin are amazing together. Glad you’re enjoying my recipes, Lia! I really appreciate your feedback.
Valerie
Love the recipe- any idea on a substitution for the sugar?
Kate
Hey Valerie, you could probably just add maple syrup or honey to taste, but I haven’t tried! Please let me know if you do.
Jen
Hey Kate , im a student from Ottawa Canada and I’d just like to say that I love everyone of your recipes . ive been following you for a couple years now and I can always find amazing recipes that fit into a students schedule without jeopardizing the healthiness. Can’t wait for your cookbook!
Kate
Thank you so much for saying so, Jen! Yay! :)
Tara
Made these for breakfast this morning. Substituted the sugar with honey. They came out delish! Can’t wait to try with peaches.
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Rachel
I’ve made these as is and they are great. I have a couple questions. I would like to take them to family dinner but would it work if I made the dough part ahead of time and kept in the fridge until ready to use? Do you think oat flour would work fine to make them gluten free? Thanks.
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Kate
Hi Rachel, so glad you’ve enjoyed them. Yes, I think you could make the dough part ahead of time. Oat flour might work; almond flour might as well. I just haven’t tried to be sure. I hope they go over well!
Jessica @ BK
Fall means apples at my house, and that makes me a happy girl! This is going on the must make list.
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