As fall weather settles in, a desire for desserts of apples and pears seems to arise out of my subconscious.

These fall fruits are refreshing eaten fresh out of hand, but change their character in subtle ways when cooked or baked — exuding their juices, their sugars richly caramelizing, the textures softening but remaining pleasantly chewy. Pies are the natural first thought for fall desserts.

But pies are sometimes intimidating for home cooks, the issue of pie dough posing choices and challenges. Is butter or Crisco better for shortening? Is lard making a comeback? Can crusts made with oil be any good? Isn't cutting in shortening and butter more trouble than it is worth? Can I really roll out a crust and transfer it to the pan without traumatizing the crust or myself? Why not just use a prepared pie crust?

These issues can be almost totally avoided by opting instead to bake a cobbler, a crisp, a pandowdy, crumble, betty or slump — all wonderful regional appellations for satisfying, easy-to-make-desserts using the fall fruit bounty of apples, pears, late-bearing berries or cranberries.

They’re simple fruit desserts baked under a single crust, or a layer of biscuit dough, or a loose topping of flour and sugar and butter (along with chopped nuts or oatmeal), or in layers with bread crumbs and sweet spices.

For a glossary discussing the distinctions (if any) between these evocative cooking terms, see the sidebar.

Any baked fruit concoction will only be as good as the fruit one uses. Pears need to be ripe enough to be sweet, but not so ripe that peeling them results in mush. Everyone probably has a favorite apple variety, but I opted to try one of my favorite eating apples, the Honey Crisp, in all of the apple recipes below, and I was not disappointed. I think a tart apple is always better for baking than a sweet apple, and a firm-flesh, crisp apple is better than a softer, mealier variety.

PEAR-CRANBERRY CRISP

When I tested this recipe, it was too early to find fresh cranberries, so I used dried, first plumping them for 15 minutes or so in hot water. The result was excellent.

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour, divided

1/3 cup (packed) brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, softened and divided

1/3 cup toasted pecan halves, coarsely chopped

5 ripe but firm Bosc or Bartlett pears