Oatmeal Cake with Pears

It's comfort food season, and pear season—which, in my opinion—go hand in hand. I had some pears that I wanted to use up and I was trying to think of the best way to do so. I remembered my sister-in-law's (and her mom's) famous and amazing Oatmeal Cake. They have always done it in a bundt pan, but I figured I'd try this cake with pears on the bottom, in a 9x13 pan. It was magical! Seriously, this is one of my favorite cakes ever. It has so many of my favorite elements, cinnamon, oatmeal, coconut, pecans, caramelized goodness, and now pears. Make this cake! Your everything will thank you!

Oatmeal Cake with Pears (slightly adapted from my sis-in-law's recipe)

1/2 c. butter

1 1/4 c. oatmeal

1 c. boiling water

1/2 c. milk

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 c. flour

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

4 Pears, peeled and sliced thin 

Butter a 9X13 cake pan. Line bottom of the pan with prepared pears; set aside. In a bowl melt butter and combine with oatmeal, add boiling water, let sit for 20 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour batter over pears and bake at 350° for 30 minutes, or until golden and cake springs back at your touch.

Topping

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. heavy whipping cream

1 c. coconut

1/3 c. butter

1 cup pecans (chopped well)

Heat the butter, sugar, and heavy cream until the mixture begins to bubble on the sides, making sure that the butter is completely melted (do not bring to a boil). Fold in pecans and coconut and pour over hot cake. Place under the broiler (lo broiler) for 1-3 minutes and watch carefully so that the coconut doesn’t burn. The topping should bubble and become somewhat caramelized. Put this in your face as soon as humanly possible.

Pear and Fresh Ginger Crisp

I love a good crisp. Warm fruit and spices with a crispy topping is just magic to me. It's one of the most ultimate comfort foods out there—and we all know how much I love my comfort food. I found this recipe in a cookbook called The Craft of Baking. The thing I love about this book is that it will give you a recipe and then on the side of said recipe it says "varying your craft" and gives you alternate versions to the original recipe. This is totally my steez, y'all. I love tweaking stuff and seeing what works better (and sadly, occasionally, sometimes worse) than the original. Most of my favorite recipes have come from that very practice. This book is definitely one of my favorites for this reason, and just the fact that it contains so much goodness. So, without further ado, here is the "varied" recipe of a Pear and Fresh Ginger Crisp.

FRUIT:
6 ripe Bartlett or Anjou pears, peeled, halved, cored, and diced
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour

STREUSEL:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup (4 oz.) almonds, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoon (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

FOR THE FRUIT:
In a large bowl, mix together the pears, ginger, sugar and flour. Let the mixture stand at room temperature until juices begin to draw out from the fruit, about 30 minutes.

FOR THE STREUSEL:
Combine the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, almonds, cinnamon, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix just to combine. Add the butter and mix just until the streusel comes together. Spread onto a baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator until firm, about 15 minutes.

Crumble the streusel with your fingers, and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to use.

Pour the fruit and juices into a 6-cup casserole or an 8-inch square baking dish. Top with the streusel. Place the baking dish on the prepared baking sheet and bake, rotating the sheet halfway through, until the fruit in tender, the juices are bubbling and thickened, and the topping is browned, about 40 minutes. Transfer the baking dish to a wire rack and let the crisp cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The crisp is best eaten the day it is baked.

caramelized baked pears

(This photo is from my phone so it's not bad, but it could be way better. Apologies)

As it turns out, the majority of what I eat is based on a completely out of the blue hankering I get. Sounds like I'm pregnant, I know, but this blessing/affliction has been with me since childhood. It's just how I do. If I don't get the thing I'm craving, I'll think about it for weeks until the particular thirst is satiated. This is pretty much the reason why I learned to bake and cook. I would be away at college and call up my Mom and have her coach me on how to re-create whatever childhood concoction I needed to eat at the time. Thanks, Mom! (She's a very patient woman, and the apple fell very far from the tree in that regard.) Anyway, that's how this particular dessert came about. I knew I'd be staying in SF over the weekend, so I emailed my Mom and asked her if she remembered how she used to make these yummy caramelized baked pears back in the day and if we could maybe perhaps make them this weekend? She's always a good sport so she agreed. Problem was, she couldn't remember where the recipe was. We had an idea about what the measurements were, that the oven temp. was hot and the type and amount of pears needed. We just weren't positive on the timing and the exact oven temperature. We called my Aunt who had the recipe and it was very close to what we remembered (what's up memory skills?!) so here it is. Soooo good. The perfect cozy winter night dessert.

Caramelized Baked Pears

6 medium sized Bosc pears
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cube butter
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 450°. Peel, core, and quarter pears, then place in a 9x13" baking pan. Sprinkle sugar over pears and cut butter into chunks and place over pears. Bake for 45 minutes; spooning the syrup over the pears every 10 minutes (once the sugar melts and forms the syrup). When sauce thickens, and turns golden, pour in the cream. Continue to bake and baste pears until syrup and pears turn golden brown. Serve hot over vanilla (or other appropriate flavored ice cream—I'm looking at you, butter pecan).