Feelings About Fillings

Pies bring out my inner neat-freak. Not from the flour spilling all over the counter when rolling out the crust or from the dough tearing and sticking to the rolling pin. Not from the fruit unevenly poured into the shell or from the juices haphazardly bubbling up through the slits in the crust.

It’s from slicing the pie into pieces to serve. After the host removes the triangles, the remaining fruit oozes out from the pie into the base of the tin, creating a sticky gooey mess. My hand twitches involuntarily, and I try to resist the urge to scoop up the offending fruit with a spoon and eat it just to clean up the pie plate.

At least, that’s what I tell myself. In actuality, I’m greedy and want to steal as much filling as I can… It’s the best part! So when I discovered fruit crisps, I immediately went into shock. A whole dessert devoted to the fresh sweet pie filling? (And maybe even a scoop of ice cream on top?) Heaven on my plate! Now I just need a spoon…

Pear Berry Crisp

serves 2

This recipe can easily be doubled, tripled, or multiplied by any amount to feed more sweet-toothed people. Try substituting blackberries for the blueberries for a different pairing.

filling

1 ripe pear

½ c. blueberries

2 tsp flour

1 tbsp sugar

topping

½ tsp shortening

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp flour

¼ tsp cinnamon

4 tsp oats

Preheat the oven to 350°, and lightly coat two large ramekins with nonstick cooking spray. To prepare the filling, thinly slice the pears, and add them to a medium bowl with the remaining ingredients. Stir well, and evenly distribute between the prepared ramekins. To prepare the topping, stir together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and oats in a medium bowl. Cut the shortening into the mixture using two knives or the back of a fork until it resembles a coarse meal. Sprinkle half over each fruit-filled ramekin. Bake for 25-30 min and serve warm.