Cranberry, Pear, and Apple Crumble

Crumble Topping:

3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar (here I use Splenda brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (I used steel cut oats which I like for a harder texture)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Filling:
2-3 tablespoons light brown sugar (here I use Splenda brown sugar)
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch (corn flour)
1 1/2 pounds Granny Smith Apples or other firm, tart-tasting apple - peeled, cored, and sliced into 1’’x3’’
1 1/2 pounds ripe Bartlett or Anjou Pears, peeled, cored and sliced into 1’’x3’’
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Hellllloooo!! I’ve been meaning to make an appl-ie treat for some time since I’ve gone apple picking with my gal-pal, Katia. Because I’m a terribly lazy person/the men in my life have not been around the Princeton area for the last week, I’ve delayed making this because I can’t be eating entire baked treats by myself. Luckily apples and pears do not have a short shelf life (thank you God). Now, just to preface, I am recently moved out of my parent’s house (once again thank you God) and don’t have a ton of the kitchen toys that I really which I had … so I also get to show my college-student derived cooking Macgyver skills.

So first thing's first ... ALWAYS PREHEAT THE OVEN ... it's sorta my OCD thing ... to 375 degrees (F for all you metric people out there) and put a healthy coating of cooking spray on your pan. I used a small shallow alminum pan, probably about 12 inches in diameter because I didn't have anything else and it worked out fine ... deeper pans might be nicer, but this is totally functional. 

 Next I started working on the crumble topping. So the recipe (taken from http://www.joyofbaking.com under the apple section) basically instructs to combine all the crumble ingredients to a food processer until the clumps are the size of peas. now, I do not have these fancy things so I used my day's frustration from my crappy job to help me along the way ... using my might!

So I measured out the walnuts (I snuck in another handful cause I like walnuts or in Lebanese dialect “joz”) and I crushed them using my wooden spoon. (I don’t know if it’s in my old-world Italian DNA to feel I need to have a wooden utensil while cooking, but nonetheless, it worked pretty well.)

SMASH!!!

... and added it to my big metal mixing bowl (which is my only one, you'll see how I Macgyver my way out of that one later...)

The next issue is the butter, food processors will mix that stuff together fairly well, however, I tried to cut the stick of butter as small as I could as to make my life easier when I was mixing with my antiquated wooden spoon.

.... and I added that and attemped mixing ... violently. 

Now I had some difficulty getting everything "pea sized" --- mostly the butter was the thing that gave me the biggest issue so I pulled the butter apart with my fingers until I could judge that it was "good enough" by my novice standards.

 

Set this aside and start working on the filling...

So as I alluded to before, my day was ... let's say rage-filled and I took it out on unsuspecting apples and pears .... 

FEEL MY FURY!

I then sliced 3 apples and 3 pears with a knife miraculously avoiding any spilling of my blood (I'm not terribly competent with knives...) with a bit of help from my roomate, Anthony.

Being that I only have one mixing bowl, which was occupied by the crumbly topping for this deliciousness, I had to use my roomate's old camping cook-out pot which looks rustic at best ... but once again, it worked. I then added the sugar and 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour because I didn't have any cornstarch (Google told me it was a suitable substitution, and I don't argue with master Google) and mixed in the apples, pears, and crasins.
 

Somehow the apple-pear mixture fit into the pan .... WIN!
 

and I was able to pack in all of the topping using my fingers .... DOUBLE WIN!
 

I baked this crumbly beast for about 35 minutes (or until the topping had browned a bit and all the butter was melted)
 

... and served!
 

Now, I would classify this as a win. It tasted great, although it would be even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of its warm gooey goodness. This recipe, in addition to being delicious is also rather guilt-free. There's no real bottom crust, just a lovely pile of seasonal fruits with brown sugar splenda to sweeten. So I encourage you all to make and eat ... GUILT FREE and don't be afraid to play a little jazz in the kitchen when things go a little wonky ;).

Enjoy!