Nov 04, 2012
I had a large can of pears to use up and this was the best recipe I could find for my tastes and that purpose. The taste of the finished product as I made it was very good. I think you'd be hard pressed to mess up the taste with these ingredients. :) However, as the other reviewers noted, there are several issues with the recipe as written: 1) Mine was in the oven for a total 80 minutes (even though the knife still wasn't perfectly clean and I used half the amount of bread). 2) I replaced the pear brandy with the syrup from the can. 3) I used one loaf of French bread, sliced about 1/2" to 1" thick and did not remove the crust (2 loaves, a pound, seemed way too much). 4) I did not add any vanilla and only about half the salt to the crumb topping as I don't normally add any vanilla or salt to crumb toppings. 5) I made this in a baking dish with a glass top. I didn't add any weights or other covers, but again I also used half the amount of bread. It made two layers without stuffing the pieces together. The liquid just covered the bread I used. I removed the top to brown the topping for about 10-15 minutes. 6) I put the crumb topping only on the top and it covered nicely. It wouldn't have been enough if I had used any within the dish.
—koconnell
