Bad Apples [&Pears]

I buy a lot of fruit. Sometimes I'll have more fruit than one girl can through on her own, so I'll come to discover that all of my apples and pears [and bananas and berries...] are looking a little sad. Okay, worse than a little sad. Pathetic. Like Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield bad. [On a mostly unrelated side note, when I was a young'n, we had a farm cat that suddenly became quite aggressive and was a little reckless with his chompers. He was affectionately named Tyson after the one and only.]

Lucky for you, with all this decaying fruit, I was able to make something delicious and am willing to share the recipe with you. You can call this a cobbler, a crisp, a giant mess of oats, whatever you'd like. I've actually never made a cobbler or crisp and based this recipe off of something I used to make as a kid. My parents used to stock up on those frozen mini-chicken pot pies and while I didn't care for those, I did encourage my Dad and brother to eat them as much as possible because I wanted to get my hands on the mini-pie tins they came in. As soon as there was an empty one sitting around, it was on. I would crush graham crackers, mix them with butter, cinnamon and sugar and then slice up an apple, mix that with cinnamon and sugar and put it all in the microwave for a few minutes. That was my makeshift apple pie. This is my makeshift apple and pear crisp.

For future reference, all of my recipes are vegan and a good percentage of them are gluten-free, including this one. :)

Bad Apple&Pear Crisp

Crust:
1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Mix (or any AP mix that you prefer, could use whole wheat if not gluten sensitive)
1/2 cup brown rice flour (again, could sub whole wheat flour)
1/4 cup sucanat
1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
4 tablespoons Earth Balance, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon all spice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if using wheat flours)

Filling:
2 apples, diced
2 pears, diced
generous pinch of cinnamon
2 tablespoons sucanat

Topping:
1/3 cup oats
2 tablespoons Bob's Red Mill GF AP Mix
2 tablespoons buckwheat groats
2 tablespoons brown rice syrup
1 tablespoon coconut oil

Preheat oven to 375. Grease a nine inch circle cake pan. Blend dry crust ingredients. Add butter and mix until well blended. Press firmly into cake pan, making sure to create an even crust.

Over medium heat, warm apples and pears with sugar and cinnamon until they begin to soften, five to eight minutes. Pour over crust.

Mix topping ingredients. This should have the texture of granola. Loosely scatter over the apple/pear mixture.

Bake, uncovered, for 35 minutes. Serve warm, but just as good cold. Will keep for a few days covered in the refrigerator.

**Note: I'm only beginning to remember to keep track of my measurements in the kitchen so I apologize if something is a little off in the measurements. I work so haphazardly, which is okay for just me, but is definitely a danger when sharing with others.

Also, feel free to substitute other sugars for the sucanat and coconut palm sugar; honey, maple syrup or agave for the brown rice syrup.**

Enjoy :)