Gingerbread Pear Crumble an OATrageous Oatmeal Recipe and Review

Oatmeal is budget friendly, heart-healthy, and extremely tasty pantry staple. The newest cookbook on the market, ““OATrageous Oatmeals!” is full of delicious and surprising plant-based dishes. Not only that, but the recipes are all vegan with soy-free and gluten-free recipes too.

Photo Credit Kate Lewis

“OATrageous Oatmeals!”

Amazingly talented Kathy Hester releases her latest book , “OATrageous Oatmeals!” September, 2014. I had the opportunity to have lunch with her at the Orlando Food and Wine Conference and she is about the nicest lady you could every meet. Not only that, but she is an extremely talented chef. When I heard her new book was all about OATMEAL, I asked if I could share it with YOU! Oatmeal is such a healthy, versatile grain that is reasonably priced. It fills up tummies and keeps them full for a longer period of time. I received a copy of this book. All opinions in this article are 100% my own.

This book came at the perfect time for our family. We were just discussing the increasing price of groceries, eating healthy and how to fill tummies with the healthy foods while staying within a budget. Oatmeal is a GREAT solution!

The first recipe we tried was the Full-Of-Veggies White Chili. The book arrived on my doorstep at 4:30. I happened to open to that page and thought… oh. I have most of the ingredients, looks like dinner! I didn’t have tomatillos on hand, so just threw in tomatoes. Next time, I will follow the recipe to a T. My husband, toddler, and I thought it was fabulous. He actually couldn’t believe there were that many vegetables AND oatmeal in it! The 4 year old and 7 year old were not big fans of it.

Next on my list to try was Gingerbread Pear Crumble. Not only did it sound yummy, but it was a recipe my kids could help make. Pears are great for little hands to cut because they are so soft. The crumble is easy to measure and mix as well. We thought it looked a lot like Gruffalo Crumble and read the book The Gruffalo while it baked!

Read more of our Cooking with Kids articles here

Gingerbread Pear Crumble

From OATrageous Oatmeals by Kathy Hester
printed with permission of Page Street Publishing

soy-free, gluten-free option*, oil-free option**

This is a wonderful way to keep your holidays healthy, and it takes less time to make than a batch of cookies. If you aren’t a huge molasses fan, you can use half the amount or even replace it with another sweetener. Depending on what you have on hand, use either apples or a combination of pears and apples.

Makes 8 servings

Topping Ingredients:
1 cup (96 g) rolled oats
1 cup (132 g) whole wheat pastry flour (*use a gluten-free baking mix)
1/4 cup (60 ml) agave nectar
2 tablespoons (40 g) molasses
11/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1⁄8 teaspoon cloves

Filling Ingredients:

5 cups (805 g) chopped pears (peeled if not organic)
2 tablespoons (30 ml) agave nectar,optional
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 F (177 C). Spray a 2-quart casserole dish with oil. (**You can also line with parchment paper or use a nonstick pan to make it oil-free.)

Combine all of the topping ingredients together in a bowl and mix well. Set aside. If your pears aren’t very sweet, add 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of agave nectar and a pinch of salt.

Spread out the pear mixture in the casserole dish.

Crumble the gingerbread topping over the pears, then bake for 30 minutes.

Per serving: Calories 202.3, protein 3.1 g, total fat 1.1 g, carbohydrates 47.2 g, sodium 1.9 mg,

fiber 5.7 g