Now that November is here, my holiday cooking and baking plans are in full swing. I have lists of Thanksgiving sides and desserts I want to try out for the main event this year, and I’m looking forward to posting about the keepers. I’ve even been jotting down some ideas for Christmas cookies already, which I also can’t wait to share! In the meantime though, things are a little busy around here as I wrap up this year’s farmers market season with holiday events – assembling gift boxes and baskets, filling orders, and as always encouraging people to shop local. So today, I’m sharing an easy autumn dessert that doesn’t take much time at all to put together. While I’m pretty partial to pie for Thanksgiving dessert, I’m definitely thinking about serving this for brunch the next day. Whether you make it around Thanksgiving or not, I hope you’ll give it a try. Enjoy!

• 1 (12oz) bag of fresh cranberries, washed and picked over
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 6 pears, peeled and cut into slices

For the crisp topping:

• 1 stick butter, cut into 1″ pieces
• 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a 9×13″ baking dish or a casserole dish. In a large pot, combine the cranberries and water. Cook at medium heat 15-20 minutes or until the cranberries pop and reduce to a thick sauce.

Stir in the orange zest and sugars, then add in the pear slices. Stir to combine.

To make the topping, in a medium bowl, use a pastry blender to combine all of the topping ingredients, leaving pea-sized chunks of butter throughout.

Pour the cranberry-pear mixture into the prepared dish.

Sprinkle with the topping (since I used a 1.6 L casserole dish instead of a 9×13″ dish, I only used about 1/2 of the topping).

Bake 40-45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.

Serve warm.