MY MOTHER'S BELOVED SUMMER FRUIT CRISP
Inarguably, summer fruit are the very best fruit of all the seasons. Okay, maybe that may be arguable to some of you, but I truly feel that the summer harvest has the most delicious and incredibly flavorful fruit. Just think about what summer brings us: peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, strawberries, and sooooo much more! I have so many memories of my mother taking all of the fruit out of our fridge and somehow finding a way to throw it into the oven with a few ingredients, each time making up the measurements, and making it taste spectacular. Not until about three years ago did I realize that what she actually was doing was making a crisp. Right now, I'm going to show you how to make my family's (and our friend's) favorite summertime dessert.
Gather all of your ingredients, including the best (or ripest) looking fruit in your fridge. Also, set your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Begin by cutting up all of the fruit you took out. Since this crisp was for a bigger group of people (this can feed about 8-10 people if portioned so), use about 4 to 5 of each bigger fruit. For smaller fruits like berrries, use 1/2 a box.
Add all of the listed dry ingredients to the fruit mixture. This includes the constarch, flour, cinnamon, and brown sugar.
With a big spoon mix the fruit together with the dry ingredients, but be careful not to crush the fruit.
Then take the fruit mixture and pour it into a large baking dish, spreading the fruit evenly on the bottom.
In a seperate bowl, combine your butter, oatmeal, granola, baking powder, and vanilla. You can either do this with a fork or with your hands, but from the picture above you can see what my mom and I prefer. ;)
Take your crisp topping and crumble it all over the fruit mixture. It does not have to be even, but try to cover it as much as possible with the amount of topping you have.
Bake your crisp for 40-45 minutes or until it looks a nice darker golden brown. Then serve and enjoy!! :)
Now here's the recipe!
Ingredients:
For the fruit mixture:
4 nectarines
5 apricots
1/2 box of raspberries
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of corn starch
For the crisp mixture:
A stick of softened butter
A packet of Maple and Brown Sugar Oatmeal
1/4 cup of granola (any kind will do; preferrably without dried berries)
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Directions:
1.) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2.) Cut up all your fruit into medium sized chunks and place into a large bowl.
3.) Add all of the dry ingredients listed above in the fruit mixture list to the bowl.
4.) With a big spoon mix the fruit together with the ingredients carefully so you don't crush the fruit.
5.) Then take the fruit and pour it into a large baking dish, which does not need to be buttered, and spread it evenly.
6.) In a separate bowl, take all of the ingredients listed above for the crisp mixture and combine it with either a fork or your hands.
7.) Take your crisp mixture and crumble it over your fruit mixture as evenly as you can. It definitely does not have to be perfect.
8.) Bake the crisp for 40-45 minutes or until the top of the crisp is a darkened golden brown. Let it cool for 15 minutes and serve warm!
It took some coaxing to get my mom to let me write this recipe down, but she eventually gave in. I told her that it's okay to share it with all of you because this is only one version of her famous crisp, since every other time she makes up the measurements. The measurements above are just a base for all of you to experiment with, so if you don't happen to have enough sugar one time just replace it with something else. With an ingredient switch as simple as that, you've got yourself a whole new recipe! Also, you can use any type of fruit for this crisp, even though I made the case for summer fruit. The possibilites are endless so I suggest you get baking pronto!!
xoxo,
Emma :)