This pear crisp recipe is such an easy, delicious fall dessert! The sweet, soft fruit and nutty crumble are fantastic with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
I love to think of this pear crisp recipe as a “pair crisp.” With quotation marks. Because this is a dessert for 2. Get it? Jack is sitting next to me right now shaking his head, but honestly, I love desserts that are easy to make in small portions. See, if I made a pear crisp recipe large enough to serve 4, it would still serve just the two of us. Just one more bite after one more bite, and it would all be over. We have no control, especially around sweet, cinnamon-spiced fall desserts like this one. (And pssst! If you’re serving 4, you can easily double this recipe!)
If you love apple crisp as much as I do, I’m telling you, you have to try it with pears. They’re so soft and sweet that they practically melt into the crumble topping. And because (ripe) pears are so much softer than apples, this pear crisp recipe bakes in about half the time. What’s not to love about that?
Pear Crisp Recipe Ingredients
Fruit crisps are some of my favorite desserts to make at home. I love that they can just serve 2 and that they show off fresh fruit, but they’re also easy to make. In fact, I almost always have all the ingredients for this pear crisp in my pantry:
- Pears! Heads up – you’re going to want to get these guys in advance. I don’t know about you, but whenever I head to the store for pears, they’re always rock hard. You want soft, ripe pears for this recipe, so buy them a few days ahead of time and let them ripen on your counter. Use whatever kind you like best – Bosc, D’Anjou, or Bartlett pears would all be great.
- Whole rolled oats – They add delicious homey texture to the crumble topping.
- Walnuts – What’s a crumble topping without crunchy, toasty nuts? I love the combination of pears and walnuts in the fall.
- Flour – I use homemade oat flour or almond flour to make this recipe gluten-free! Store bought oat or almond flour would work here too.
- Brown sugar – It sweetens the nutty crumble topping.
- Cinnamon and nutmeg – For warm, spiced fall flavor.
- Coconut oil – For richness. Because I don’t use butter here, this pear crisp recipe is both vegan and dairy-free!
- And sea salt – Don’t skip it! It makes all the sweet, warm, and nutty flavors pop.
Oh, and another reason I love this recipe – it’s great to make ahead! Toss together the oats, walnuts, flour, sugar, and spices in advance. When you’re ready to bake, mix in the coconut oil and dice the pears. Layer them into a baking dish, sprinkle on the topping, and bake!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
More Favorite Fall Dessert Recipes
If you love this pear crisp recipe, try one of these fall desserts next:
- Apple Crumble
- Apple Cake
- Pumpkin Bread
- Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
- Perfect Oatmeal Cookies
- Pumpkin Bars
- Best Pumpkin Pie
- Or any of these 25 Super Fun Baking Recipes!
Pear Crisp
- 2 ripe pears
- 3 tablespoons whole rolled oats*
- 3 tablespoons chopped walnuts
- 2 tablespoons gluten-free oat flour or almond meal
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- Small grating of fresh nutmeg (about ⅛ tsp.)
- Pinch of salt
- 1½ tablespoons hardened coconut oil
- Preheat the oven to 375.
- In a small bowl, mix together the oats, flour, walnuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.
- Use your fingers or the back of a fork to crumble in the hardened coconut oil until it's incorporated but still crumbly.
- Grease the bottom of a 6" skillet (or similar sized ramekin) with coconut oil. Add the pears and sprinkle the crumble on top.
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the pears are soft but not mushy.
- Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream.
*If you're sensitive to gluten, make sure your oats and oat flour are certified gluten-free.
Lovely recipe and thanks for sharing! I love pears! Is there a reason why you recommend using a 8″ square glass pan? Does it lock in the flavor more?
What a great idea! Just put it on my menu list 🙂
lovely…
I Love all your posts… And i Just share you blog ON mine, hope You dont care!
Kiss
Hi! Just stumbled upon your blog and thought to let you know it’s beautiful. Lovely photos and recipes; keep up the fantastic work! 🙂
I try this dessert tonight and is simply delicious.
Perfect for the fall. Love the use of colors in your food and photos!
I’m always in favour of a good pun, so dont hold back next time! There’s some brilliant beurre bosc pears around at this time of year so I’d be temped to sub in “beurre noisette” aka browned butter instead of coconut oil and call it double beurre crisp – purely because the name seems fun 😉
Literally salivating over here! I loved your raspberry walnut crumble bars so I know what a walnut-y crumble topping will do to this crisp, not to mention the delicious baked pears you mention. Must make this soon! And I liked your pun, btw. 😉
thanks! Glad you like the raspberry bars!
My (soon to be) 8 year old is going to love this. Oh… it has to be vanilla ice cream, doesn’t it? Just has to be for me! X
yep, definitely vanilla!
Looks amazing! It’s a perfect dessert for 2.
oh I just made pear crisps. They are so good!! Not sure why appples get all the attention!! I personally would have loved the pair bake title!
thanks, ha, next time I’ll follow my instinct and go with my silly puns!
lol, this looks lovely! You totally should have named it “pair crisp.”
ha, thanks! Glad someone appreciates good puns 🙂
Absolutely love walnuts, and they work beautifully in this. The addition of the ice cream?!? I’m sold. Can’t wait to try this one out!
This sounds amazing, and I love crisps and adore pears far beyond apples. This is a perfect late fall treat for sure!
I love how easy and rustic fruit crisps are. Even though I love that it’s vegan, I might sub out the coconut oil. Do you think that might offer a bit more browning for the topping?
BUTTER! Gah!
yep, you can sub in butter 🙂
any other options please?! I don’t eat coconut oil or butter 🙁 but so want to bake it! thanks.
Hi Anastasia, it needs some kind of solid fat to get the crumble to crumble – vegan butter would work here. I don’t have a fat free version, sorry!
I love puns and I love this mini dessert! I just bought some pears on Sunday, so I should probably make this…
ha, thx 🙂
for some reason I always think of fruit crisps to be too much effort for after dinner, but this actually looks so easy! curious what your go-to evening cocktail recipes are?
I should have mentioned this in the post – but I often measure out everything except the oil ahead of time so that all I have to do when I’m ready to make it is incorporate the oil and chop the pear.
For cocktails – depends what we have at the time – Jack likes bulleit rye mixed with ginger kombucha, sometimes with a squeeze of orange. I like prosecco or something sparkly with dessert.
I feel like pears get left behind in the flurry of pumpkin and apple season, but this looks perfect!
hahaha, this will forever be “pair crisp” to me. Lovely recipe!
I do LOVE apple crisp, and this looks amazing – too bad I just ate my last pear… Guess I’ll have to pick some more up! 🙂