Black Pepper Pear Crisp with Salted Oat Streusel

Ingredients

Crisp

• 
  
  Unsalted butter, for greasing
  
• 4
  
  firm d’anjou pears (about 2 1/2 pounds), chopped into 1″ chunks (about 5 1/2 cups)
  
• 1/2
  
  cup sugar
  
• 2 1/2
  
  tablespoons cornstarch
  
• 1
  
  tablespoon apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
  
• 1
  
  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  
• 1/4
  
  teaspoon kosher salt
  
• 
  
  Heavy cream, for serving
  

Streusel

• 1 1/2
  
  cups rolled oats, divided
  
• 1/2
  
  cup whole-wheat flour
  
• 1/2
  
  cup brown sugar
  
• 1 1/2
  
  teaspoons kosher salt
  
• 6
  
  ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, very cold, cubed
  

Directions

Crisp

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F. Grease a 9” cake pan with unsalted butter. Set it on a lined sheet tray.
2. Make the fruit filling. Combine the pears, sugar, cornstarch, vinegar, black pepper, and salt in a bowl. Gingerly toss with a spoon (or your hands!) until combined. Pour into the prepared cake pan.

Streusel

1. Add 1 cup oats, plus the flour, sugar, and salt to a food processor. Pulse a couple times just to combine. Sprinkle the butter evenly over the dry ingredients. Continue to pulse until a dough just begins to form—sort of like a shaggy cookie dough. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the remaining 1/2 cup oats by hand.
2. Evenly distribute the streusel on top of the fruit. Don’t worry if its texture is uneven—big clumps here, little crumbs there—that’s just what we want.

3. Bake for about 50 minutes until the streusel is deeply browned and the fruit juice is bubbly and slightly thick. Wait at least 20 minutes to serve warm. Or, let sit out for hours and serve at room temperature. Or, if any leftovers last until tomorrow morning, meet your new favorite breakfast. In any case: serve with lots of cream.