Vegan Pear-Ginger Olive Oil Crumble

I like how pears ripen quickly but then stay pretty good for a while. I stuck a couple of them in the fridge and soon decided to make little creme brulee dishes of crumble. These are vegan due to the use of olive oil margarine, which complemented the olive oil drizzle on top before baking.

The filling:

3 Bosc pears

3 Granny Smith apples

juice of 1 lemon

1 tbsp. cornstarch

1/4 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

2 pieces crystallized ginger, minced

pinches of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg to taste

Peel apples and then pears. (I like to cut off the top and bottom in order to stand them straight up to peel imperfectly -- a little skin left on here and there is fine -- and then I cut off four sections to dice. You want to end up with rustic chunks the size of a bouillon cube.) Pour in half the lemon juice and stir to prevent browning as you go. Mix the rest of the lemon juice with cornstarch and add it. Sugars, ginger, and spices can be incorporated next.

The crumble:

1/4 cup olive oil margarine for dishes and to chop up in crumble mixture

1 cup rolled oats

2 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. raw sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

olive oil

Butter the dish or dishes you will use, add filling, and set aside. Mix together all other ingredients except olive oil and sprinkle it on top of pears and apples in your dish. Drizzle with olive oil and bake crumble at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes until it's cooked down and top is light brown. You could top this with Greek yogurt or soy ice cream, but we just had it plain in all its gingery, spicy glory.