Easy Pear Crisp
Updated
Updated
Juicy pears in a cinnamon-sugar sauce are tucked under a sweet and crunchy pecan-oat topping for this quick and easy Pear Crisp dessert. I use either fresh or canned pears so I can make this delicious treat year-round.
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Easy Pear Crisp Recipe
When fall rolls around, I can’t help but notice all the recipes featuring seasonal produce like apple pie filling and cranberry sauce, and even roasted squash appears here and there. I remind myself that pears are a beautiful seasonal fruit that sometimes get forgotten. I am hoping this Easy Pear Crisp recipe will be a friendly nudge to pull out those pears and get baking.
A crisp is a baked dessert that includes fruit and a streusel-like crispy topping, thus the name. The topping usually consists of butter, flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and sometimes nuts.
This wonderful easy dessert comes from The Weeknight Dessert Cookbook via my friend Mary at Barefeet In The Kitchen. It’s filled with 80 irresistible and hassle-free desserts requiring only 10 or so minutes of prep. Perfect for people like me who have an insatiable sweet tooth, but not a lot of time!
The original recipe is divided and baked in four ramekins for individual servings, but one of the footnotes was to convert it into an 8×8 baking dish. I went that route, making it even easier! Either way you bake it, it’s simple and delicious.
Easy Pear Crisp
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 3 ripe pears, sliced thin into bite-sized pieces, apples or peaches also work
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ½ tsp cinnamon, or use apple pie spice
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
For the Topping
- ½ cup old fashioned oats
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour, use gluten free if needed
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup chopped pecans, almonds or walnuts also work, or omit for a nut free crisp
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted, use non-dairy for a vegan crisp
For serving
- vanilla ice cream, for serving, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl toss all of the filling ingredients together until combined. Transfer to the baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, stir all the topping ingredients together until combined.
- Evenly sprinkle the topping over the pears.
- Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the pears are tender and crust is golden.
- Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream.
Video
Notes
- My favorite pears to use are Green Anjou, Bartlett, and Bosc, but any pear works well, so choose the pear you enjoy eating on its own. You want the fruit to be ripe, but not too soft, or you’ll end up with mush after it bakes.
- When pears aren’t in season, canned pears work great too. Just adjust the cooking time since they’re not as firm and won’t take as long to bake.
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and any changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are very important to you, I would recommend calculating them yourself.
Did you make this? Leave a rating below!How to Make Pear Crisp Step by Step
Get the oven going and prepare a baking dish: Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray.
Prepare the filling: In a large bowl, toss 3 ripe pears, 3 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp cornstarch, 1 tsp vanilla, ½ tsp cinnamon, and ¼ tsp kosher salt together until combined. Transfer to the baking dish.
Prepare the topping: In a medium bowl, stir together ½ cup old-fashioned oats, ¼ cup all-purpose flour, ½ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup chopped pecans, and 1/3 cup unsalted butter until combined.
Sprinkle and bakeEvenly sprinkle the topping over the pears. Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the pears are tender and crust is golden.
Serve: Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream.
How to Store
Allow any leftovers to cool completely, then transfer to an airtight container (or cover the baking dish tightly) and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Briefly reheat the crisp in the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl until warmed through.
What to Serve With Pear Crisp
On a cold fall day, there’s nothing better than a plate of this warm pear crisp with a steaming hot gingerbread latte. Though I often top this crisp with ice cream, you can’t go wrong with a dollop of whipped cream or a drizzle of caramel sauce.
I have made this recipe twice now. I added a couple more pears than called for both times but kept the other ingredient ratios the same. I wasn’t sure the topping would be enough but it seemed to be fine. I just baked it a little longer. I used gluten free oats and gf flour blend and based on other reviews, I reduced the sugar by about a third and it was just right sweetness for our taste. Tasty!
Love this recipe! Made a large batch to use up all my ripe pears and it was delicious!! I used pie spice and didn’t add any sugar to the fruit filling. It was perfect.
Could I put raisins in the fruit?
Of course. Enjoy!
Made a double batch with pears from our pear tree! We loved it! Thank you for sharing.
Your pear crisp recipe was easy to make and absolutely delicious. Thank you
This is an excellent recipe, we really enjoyed it!
First time cooking with pears…it was delicious.
This was simple and wonderful.
This recipe was tasty but a bit too sweet for us. I reduced the amount of brown sugar in the topping to 1/4 cup but if I made it again, I’d reduce it a little more, either in the topping or in the filling. Delicious otherwise!
So easy and delicious! We had pears from a neighbor that were unripe and hard. I used them in this recipe and they were perfect. No changes to the recipe; perfect as is!
It was delicious but I think less sugar next time. I also added a small apple with the pears:
Deliciously Balanced and delightful. It was easy to put together and perfect for our Sunday afternoon get together.
I had 3 pears getting ripe and decided to make this. So easy and smells so good (it’s in the oven now). Will make it again when my pear trees produce next summer
I loved this recipe so much thank you so much for your hard work making it. I was fun and easy to make and did I mention that it was so delicious and the pecans on top made me think of those sugar coated pecans. Again, thank you so much for this delicious recipe!
Easy and delicious! Great recipe for using up a lot of extra pears from a friend’s tree.
This sounds good and easy; I will definitely try making it and let you know of the result. Thank you
Loved it. Super easy.
This recipe was awesome thank you
Thank you for this recipe Amy! I made this for dinner tonight for the 3 of us and there were no leftovers. For the filling: I used 1 can of pears, including the juice, instead of fresh, and added a big handful of frozen blueberries for sweetness. I omitted the sugar and the lemon juice and added a pinch of cardamom. For the topping: I used vegan butter, omitted the sugar, used walnuts instead of pecans, and added some cinnamon and vanilla. Yes, the brown sugar would have made a difference, but these changes made for a great fully vegan and totally sugar-free dessert!
I don’t eat dessert very often. I avoid sugar because most things don’t need it. I never drink soda with or without sugar. Water and unsweetened tea all the way. But I read your comment with dismay. You went to a lot of effort to eliminate any sugar and in the end, you compromised the crucial caramelization that makes the pear filling delectable and the melting crunch of the topping. I have no doubt that your changes resulted in something your family liked but Unless you live in a house full of diabetics, having a rare sweet dessert is one of the few pleasures of childhood.
How long did you bake pear crisp for? I will also b using canned pears
Soooo easy and De-Lish!! I have now saved this recipe so I can try it with other fruits too! Crumbles and cobblers and such are my FAVORITE desserts but I’m lazy LOL. This was Cinch! Thank you!
Easy and amazing! I used canned pears- will make again.
This was so simp.eand delighted! Had it for a lunch with soup and salad. My guests asked for the recipe. I will be making it again!
I have so many canned pears I didn’t know what to do with. Found this recipe and it got ate up in an hr, my fiancé was mad because he only got one bite. So I’m making it again but triping the batch haha thank you! I used some vanilla In my crumble too
Delicious! Our pears were not ripe at all, so the ending result was very crunchy, but that made it a true “crisp”. Really good. Thank you for the recipe.
We actually got some usable pears from our pear tree this year so I was looking for a recipe and came across this one. It was sooo good. I had about a half cup of apple pie filling left over from turnovers I made last weekend so I added them to the pear mixture. We had it warm with some waffle cone ice cream. YUMMY!!!!!
This recipe was easy and so delicious! We loved it and will be making it often!
Excellent recipe my husband loves this and all my neighbors do too
Terrific recipe! Quick to make, easy to bake, and oh so good. Thanks for sharing. As we have a ton of pears this season, I’ll be making this often.
This was delicious and went beyond my expectations. I used three very ripe pears and only baked for 10 minutes and broiled for 2 minutes since I didn’t want it to be too mushy. Thank you for the recipe!
This was great! I used canned pears so I skipped the sugar in the filling. Still plenty sweet. Delicious and easy way to use canned pears. Thanks!
Did you use just one can of pears?
I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! I have been searching for a dessert recipe using pears and finally decided to try this one. So simple, easy, and OMG DELICIOUS!!! Pecans and pears? Inspirational!!! I used canned pears and substituted 1T+1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar since I didn’t have lemon juice. And I tripled the recipe for a large baking dish and cut up the canned pears into bite sized chunks. Reminds me so much of a peach crumble, but I think I might like this MORE! The pears were extra soft and the crumble was almost chewy, so it was HEAVENLY!!!! Will be keeping and making this recipe for the rest of forever. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! Thank you again for such a delicious recipe!!!
How to use canned pears. What does the original recipe say?
Hi Susie – you would just replace the fresh with canned.
We made this today using canned pears!! It was so simple and smells delicious, it’s baking now. Thank you for sharing!! We didn’t have cornstarch so I used flour in the filling – it looks like it’s thickening up nicely :)
How much canned pears should I use? Also if I am using canned pears do I need lemon juice?
I’m not sure how many pears come in a 15 ounce can, but you’d need the equivalent of 3 pears. Yep, you’ll still want the lemon juice.
Just wanted to clarify, I tripled the recipe and substituted about 2 regular sized cans of sliced pears per “3 ripe pears” or one large can of pear halves per “3 pears”. Also, when using the apple cider vinegar as a substitute, I halved the amount of vinegar. So for my triple recipe I ended up using 1T + 1 1/2tsp. Just wanted to clarify for anyone else!