Apples get all the love in baking, but I think it’s time to show pears some love, and this Pear and Ginger Crumble is a great place to start! Sweet pears and spicy ginger are topped with a gluten-free oat and nut streusel mixture. It’s then baked until golden brown and bubbly. Try this and I think that you are going wonder why you never made a pear crumble before.

This recipe is dedicated not only to my desire for pears to get more dessert love, but also to my new spiralizer! My wonderful in-laws bought me one for Christmas and this is the first time I got a chance to try it out. It’s fun! The one I have fits on my KitchenAid Mixer – the KitchenAid Spriralizer Attachment. Once you get it attached and pick your spriralizing blade, you just put the pear in, turn it on and watch it go. Though of course if you don’t have a spiralizer, it’s easy enough to halve the pears and thinly slice them. Just not as much fun. 🙂

This is a recipe to make when you have a pile of ‘ripe but firm’ pears in the house. Too hard and they won’t be sweet enough. Too soft and you’ll get pear sauce instead of a crumble you can bite into. Stay tuned for an awesome quick bread featuring ‘oh no, these pears are overripe‘ pears. It’s a companion to my Bourbon Pecan Banana Bread for recipes of what to do when your fruit has sat about too long on the counter. Not that I have much experience with that. Nope, not me.

These pears, though, were perfectly ripe. I’ve been having issues lately with buying pears that were picked too early and then ended up overripe in the middle and still firm on the outside. Don’t you hate that? I had just about given up on buying pears at the supermarket but I saw some bags of Green Anjou pears that I couldn’t resist trying, and luckily it turned out that these pears ripened without rotting and actually remained tasty even when overripe. Score!

Once I had tasty pears and had decided to make a pear crumble, I had two goals in mind. First, I wanted a very lightly sweetened, gluten-free crumble. Happily, I had already created such a dessert when I made my Gluten-Free Blueberry Peach Crisp over the summer. A few flavor modifications here and there to fit the pears and I was all set.

Second, I wanted to move away from refined sugar. This is something I’m working on and you will see more desserts using natural sugars as time goes on. So, to replace the brown sugar, I bought some unrefined coconut sugar. And I’m going to be using it again! The flavor was great and it works in situations where liquid sugars, like honey and maple syrup, will not.

Are you trying to reduce the refined sugars in your life? What natural sugars have you tried? I’m eager to explore alternative and reduced sugar recipes!

– Happy Eating, Annemarie

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5 from 2 votes

Gluten-Free Pear Ginger Crumble

Ripe pears and freshly grated ginger are topped with a nut and oat streusel in this lightly sweetened, gluten-free crumble.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time50 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 8 servings

Calories: 325kcal

Author: Just a Little Bit of Bacon

Ingredients

Topping:

• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar or light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter

Filling

• 8 pears
• 2 tsp fresh grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp bourbon

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Pulse oats, pecans, almond flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a food processor for 5-6 one second pulses. Add butter and process until mixture starts to clump. Put the streusel in the refrigerator while you make the filling.
• Core and thinly slice the pears. To slice pears by hand, cut them in half lengthwise, core them out with a cookie scoop or a spoon, and then slice them no more than 1/8 inch thick. If you have a slicing spiralizer, attach the pear to the spiralizer, choosing an attachment that will core the pear as well, and run it through the spiralizer.
• Combine the pears, ginger, cinnamon, and bourbon in a large bowl. Put the filling into a casserole dish, distributing it evenly. Top with the streusel mixture. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the top is browned and the filling is bubbling. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Notes

You may need another pear to fill the dish depending on the size of your casserole dish. I use an oval 9x13 dish from Bennington Potters.

My spiralizer is the KitchenAid Spiralizer Attachment.

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