Pear & Bleu Crostini with Salted Maple Caramel Drizzle

Alright friends, I'm feelin' classy right now. Get this girl a glass of champagne or something in a martini glass already! 

But seriously, I just bought two really awesome cocktail-party dresses, so I'd love an invite to your fancy autumn cocktail party. Okay, thanks. 

And also, if you invite me, I might bring these fall crostinis with pears, bleu cheese, sage, walnuts, and salted maple caramel. It's all kinds of sweet and salty and nutty in one bite. You get that invitation in the mail, and I'll get these guys on a platter. Let's do this. 

Pear & Bleu Crostini 

Makes about 20 crostinis 

1 large pear, diced small

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped or broken 

1-2 tablespoons of crumbled bleu cheese

4-5 large sage leaves, thinly sliced

Spritz of fresh lemon juice

Fresh cracked black pepper

1 baguette, sliced in thin rounds, lightly toasted

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon maple syrup

Heavy pinch of good flaky sea salt

Toss together pears through black pepper, and top baguette rounds with mixture. Stick under broiler until cheese is melted, for just a minute or so (keep your eye on it). 

Add butter, brown sugar, syrup, and sea salt to a small, heavy bottomed pot, and heat over medium-high, stirring the whole time, until everything is melted and bubbly and mixed together. Taste and add more salt if desired. 

Drizzle caramel on top of crostini. 

Spiced Streusel Brown Butter Pear Cake

It's October! And it's sunny still! And warm! I love it so much. I'm a big fan of October…especially when the weather is insanely amazing like it has been in Seattle. The trees are all red and orange, the air is a bit crisp, and fall flavors are all over the place. I love summer produce, and while saying goodbye to Mel's bright red tomatoes for a whole year makes me a bit sad, it means that its time for hearty fall and winter produce. Butternut squash, sweet potatoes, parsnips, kale. Right now my Pinterest feed is full of pumpkin everything, warm spices, football snacks, and slow cooker favorites. Oh, and pears. 

When I visited the folks a few weeks ago, a friend gave Amanda and I huge box of pears that she picked from a local orchard. There are tons of orchards around my hometown, and by the end of September, a lot them had signs saying to pick as much as you want, for free. So obviously I needed to make an autumny pear dessert. When I think of fall desserts, I think of warm, homey flavors like brown butter and cinnamon. Like spiced brown butter pear cake with streusel topping. 

PS. Here are some things I'm digging this fall:

• Check out this awesome seasonal food map on Epicurious (latest version of Flash required)
• I'm dying to try Midnight Moon moonshine, aged with fresh fruit (um…apple pie flavor, yes please!)
• Pumpkin pancakes! I made these ones this morning…so good! 
• Listen, to my friend Kimber's band, Della Mae (check out the 2nd video, Jamie Dear...you'll die)! I mean, I'm always digging them, but just imagine a sunny crisp fall day, a slice of pear cake (or a lil' apple pie moonshine) and the best bluegrass music ever. 

Perfection.

Brown Butter Pear Cake with Spiced Streusel Topping

Adapted from this recipe

1/2 cup butter

2 medium-large pears, chopped small 

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Streusel Topping:

1/4 cup sugar


1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour


1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger


pinch salt


2 tablespoons butter

Step 1: Prep the Pears

Heat oven to 350°, and grease a 9 inch spring form pan. Mix pears and sugar in a large bowl and let stand for 10 minutes (while butter browns) to get all juicy.

Step 2: Brown the Butter

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, and cook, stirring & scraping bottom occasionally, while butter darkens to a light caramel color and smells nutty (and amazing). Be sure to watch it closely so that it doesn't burn. When browned, remove from heat and pour butter into a separate container to cool slightly. 

Add streusel butter to the sauce pan, and let melt completely (this will gather the remaining brown butter bits and get all nutty and good for the topping).

Step 3: Mix the Batter

Stir the rest of the cake ingredients, including the 1/2 cup brown butter, into the pear mixture. Pour into pan.

Step 4: Make the Topping

With a fork, stir together streusel ingredients, including the melted, slightly browned 2 T of butter. Crumble the topping evenly over the cake batter.

Step 5: Bake!

Bake for 30-45 minutes until center isn't jiggly. The toothpick doesn't really work with this one, since the pears will be moist regardless of how done the cake is. Just try gently poking the center of the cake (without burning yourself) to see if it feels set. Let cool slightly before removing springform ring and slicing. 

What's in a Name?

It’s crumbly, it’s crispy, and it’s delicious. I’m talking about Apple-Pear Crisp…er, Crumble!? After researching on the internet, I still couldn’t’ tell you the difference. Some people say a crumble has an oat streusel, some people say a crisp has the oat topping, while a crumble has a flour-sugar-butter crumbly crust like topping. Really, I don’t care what you call it, as long as I get to eat it. I love crumbles/crisps, with their sugary streusel topping over hot, syrupy fruit or berries. You can have your pies, because I’ll take one of these bad-boys over pie any day.

Ever since the leaves started turning orange and the temperatures dropped (to the 20s… we’re cold up here in Seattle!) I’ve been dying to make a crisp/crumble. Luckily, recent events left me with a box full of apples and a bag full of pears. Amanda and I ordered the HUGE box of apples from a Washington orchard that was having an Apple-Cup apple-buying contest between Huskies and Cougars. Clearly our donation was in favor of our alma mater, the University of Washington. We split the mixed box of fresh, crispy apples—leaving us with about 20 apples apiece. The freshly picked pears came from Mel and John, who live near orchard country and always have boxes of fresh fruit. I don’t know about you, but when I have an overabundance of apples and pears, I immediately dream of cinnamon and envision that crumbly streusel topping.

After a Saturday spent doing chores and decorating for Christmas, the last thing Evan and I wanted to do tonight was go out. I, of course, wanted to mess up that freshly cleaned kitchen, so I rolled up my sleeves and started peeling fruit! I looked at a few basic apple crisp recipes for the general step by step involved, and mixed and matched flavors and ingredients for this simple yet super-satisfying apple pear crumbly crisp. Clean, warm apartment, holiday decorations, staying in with the boyfriend and cat, and apple pear crisp…it doesn’t get much better than this.

Apple Pear Crumbly Crisp

2 firm-ripe pears, peeled and cut into large bite-size chunks
2 tart apples such as Granny Smith, peeled and cut into large bite-size chunks
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
Pinch of nutmeg
1 cup old-fashioned oats
½ cup brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1-2 crushed sugar cubes (or 1-2 teaspoons of granulated sugar)
Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in middle. Stir together fruits, 1/4 cup sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Place in a buttered 1-2-quart baking dish. Stir together oats, flour, salt, and brown sugar. Blend in butter with your fingers until mixture is thoroughly moistened. Press over fruit and sprinkle with sugar cubes/white sugar. Bake until juices are bubbling and topping is golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool slightly, and serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or a drizzle of heavy cream.

Editor's Pick

Food52 Challenge: Your Best Recipe with Figs.

Sure, I could have done something super fancy, like a fig tart, or a pork loin in a port-fig sauce… but for this challenge, I decided to stick to my guns and go with my favorite of food preparations: the sandwich. As I’ve mentioned before, I heart sandwiches. So, I decided for the best-fig-recipe contest I might as well incorporate figs into one of my favorite sandwiches- the Chicken Charlie.

The Chicken Charlie is a sandwich that LB and I used to get at Trillium Café when we were home from college for holidays and breaks (we used to also get rounds of beer from an old high school teacher at Trillium Cafe when we were home on college breaks, but that's another story). I’ve heard rumors that Trillium was shutting down, but lucky for us, I’ve perfected their delicious sandwich. Chicken Charlie is a grilled chicken breast topped with melted Swiss, caramelized onions, honey mustard sauce, and sliced fresh pears. The crisp pears are really what makes this sandwich special and sets it apart from other chicken sandwiches. In my version, I add my kick-ass honey mustard caramelized onions instead of (or in addition to) the honey mustard sauce. I also substitute the basic bun with some kind of yummy bread like ciabatta. It’s a pretty awesomely delicious sandwich.

I decided that I couldn’t think of a better way to use figs than in the ol’ CC sandwich- aptly (and boringly) renamed the Fall Fig and Chicken Sandwich for the contest. I also wanted to jazz it up a little, so I threw in a balsamic marinade for the bird, and a nutty blue cheese spread on the bread. Since there was so much goin’ on with this sandwich, I left the honey and mustard out of the onions, but they were still kick-ass and caramelized.

The sandwiches, served on chewy ciabatta bread, were pretty great. I definitely did ol’ Chicken Charlie proud with this one. Evan had a “tummy-ache” (or he’s afraid of eating things that grow on trees or out of the ground), so I ate my sandwich and half of his. The next morning, I mixed up the leftover goodies into an awesome chicken and fig salad sandwich for work!

Once again, delightful as it was, my recipe was not a finalist in the Food 52 challenge…but… It got a nod as an Editor’s Pick! WooHOO! I’m one step closer!

The Figgy Chicken Charlie
 
2 chicken breasts
2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion- sliced in rings
salt & pepper
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup whipped cream cheese
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
1 tablespoon peach or apricot jam
1 tablespoon crumbled blue cheese
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
6-8 figs- stemmed and halved (dried for chewier texture, fresh for softer texture-both work great)
1 ciabatta loaf (or 2-4 rolls)
spring greens salad mix
1 crisp pear- thinly sliced

For Chicken: Mix together worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, 1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper- Marinate chicken in mixture for up to an hour. Grill chicken on medium-high grill until cooked. Slice thin.

For Carmelized Onions: Heat 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil with 1 tablespoon butter. Add onions and cook over medium heat until golden and delicious. Remove onions from pan but leave remaining oil/butter on medium heat for figs.

For Figs: Add figs face down to hot oil/butter mixture. sautee until golden and chewy (1-2 minutes).

For Spread: Stir together cream cheese, blue cheese, nuts, jam, rosemary and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Assembly: Heavily spread the cream cheese mixture over both sides of bread. Pile high with chicken, pears, onions, and figs. ENJOY!