Pear, Apple, and Cranberry Crisps a la John Besh

For anyone who needs a gift idea for the foodie in their life, the Besh Box is for you: a box of goodies and gadgets hand-selected by hunky, Southern celeb-chef, John Besh  I literally squealed with glee upon receiving this treasure trove of kitchen accoutrements!  Kitchen towels, a bench scraper, a snazzy pastry-cutter, and some gorgeous pecans and vanilla beans - these are the things of holiday foodie-dreams!  This afternoon, I got to work putting my Besh Box to good use!  I used the vanilla beans in the filling and the pecans in the topping for these tasty little apple and pear crisps. I even took a little flavor inspiration from Chef Besh.  I normally add lemon juice to the filling for my apple crisps, but it didn't seem to fit in this recipe.  I asked myself, what would John Besh do?  Bourbon.  Yup, he'd add some bourbon.

Pear, Apple, and Cranberry Crisps
(makes 4 mini crisps)

For the filling:
2 medium pears, peeled and cut into 1/2" chunks
2 medium apples, peeled and cut into 1/2" chunks (I used one Granny Smith apple and one Honeycrisp - perfect!)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 TBSP whiskey or bourbon 
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 vanilla bean, sliced in half lengthwise, seeds removed (just run the dull side of a knife down the inside of the vanilla bean to scrape out the seeds)

For the topping:
3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1 stick cold butter, cut into small cubes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, toss the apples, pears, and cranberries with the whiskey, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and vanilla seeds.  

 

They're not much to look at, but those little black seeds are flavor magic!

Divide the filling among 4 ramekins, filling them just to the top.

Next, in a different large bowl or the bowl of your trusty stand mixer, mix the flour, sugars, salt, rolled oats, and pecans.  Then, add the tiny cubes of butter and mix until the topping forms large crumbs.  If doing this by hand, try a pastry blender or use your hands!  Literally!  I've found that simply squeezing the butter and dry ingredients between your fingers works very well (and has a very satisfying stress-ball-like effect).

Top each ramekin with a heaping mound of the crumbly topping and place the ramekins on a foil or parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbling out the edges.