Homemade Cranberry Pear Applesauce

I met with my nutritionist a couple days ago and our diet will be changing slightly. We’ve pretty much got on the right start when we gave up gluten. However, I will now be eliminating all grains, dairy, eggs and gluten. I will be adding healthy fats and oils, supplements and cooking everything I eat. Basically, we are starting the baby food diet until my body has time to heal. Luckily, my 15 month old daughter and I will be able to eat the same foods! Ha! This is my first recipe with this approach. In all honesty, we use applesauce a lot anyway. I use it as a replacement for many of my baked goods, sauces, pancakes, etc. I do like a little variety though so I decided to throw some pears and cranberries in the cooker for extra flavor. This makes about a quart of applesauce. 

Homemade Cranberry Pear Applesauce

Cranberry Pear Crisp with Lavender Crumble

If I could bottle the smell of this dish, I could make millions! This dessert smells absolutely wonderful cooking and tastes even better! I love a good fruit crisp. They are so easy to make and very versatile. I’ve already posted a couple crisp recipes – Cherry Rhubarb is one of my favorites also! I haven’t made a pear crisp before but I needed a quick dessert one evening and my mother-in-law brought over TONS of fresh Asian pears so I thought I would try. I love the combination of pears and cranberries. I also like adding just a little something extra and I thought that lavender would complement the fruits nicely. It turned out great! This would be a perfect addition to your holiday menu!

6 pears, peeled and sliced into ¼” slices

½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup chopped pecans
1 Tbsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp allspice
¼ cup coconut sugar
2 Tbsp GF all purpose flour
1/3 cup fresh pear juice (or apple juice)
Topping
1 cup GF oats
¼ cup potato starch
¼ cup rice flour
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup butter or coconut oil
1 tbsp fresh lavender, finely chopped

• In a large bowl, mix together pear slices, cranberries, pecans, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, coconut sugar and flour. Carefully mix with your hands until fruit is coated with dry mixture.
• Pour fruit mixture into a greased 3 qt baking pan or a 9x13 pan and drizzle fruit with juice.
• In a separate bowl, combine oats, potato starch, rice flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter or coconut oil.
• Blend butter and flour mixture with a pastry blender until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in lavender.
• Sprinkle topping mixture evenly over fruit.
• Bake at 350°F for 50-60 minutes or until crumb topping is slightly brown. Let cool for about 10 minutes. Refrigerate leftovers.

Red Wine Pears - in the pressure cooker!

I hadn’t tried making a dessert in my pressure cooker.. until now. I was nervous… I know you can make all kinds of things in them-cake, rice pudding, etc but I was scared to try. Anyway – I had some extra pears, some leftover red wine and a sweet tooth. You’re welcome. Also – today is my 5^th wedding anniversary! What a quick and easy dessert that will both satisfy your sweet tooth and let you feel like you are having an extra special treat for a special day. A little mushy here – my husband is my best friend. We’ve been together over 9 years now and each year gets better! He’s my major support person – my rock! I hope God blesses us with many more years together!

4 pears (any kind), peeled but left whole

2 cups red wine
2 cups water
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp apple pie spice (or nutmeg/allspice)
¼ cup honey (or sugar or other sweetener)
Whipped topping, if desired

• In your pressure cooker, mix together water, honey, cinnamon and apple pie spice.
• On the “brown” setting, cook for about 3 minutes or until honey is dissolved into water.
• Once your honey and water are combined, place pears standing up in pressure cooker.
• Pressure cook for 8 minutes. Release pressure and add wine.
• Pressure cook for 8 more minutes and release pressure.
• Carefully remove pears as they will be very soft. Pour some remaining wine sauce over pears and top with whipped cream, if desired.
• The longer the pears set in the wine sauce, the softer they will get it so don’t let them set for too long or they will fall apart!