Stone Fruit Crisp

This post is a throwback to my old style of blogging when I posted recipes each week. As I mentioned recently, I am doing a lot of cooking these days, just to get three meals on the table and to provide food that my aged mother might eat.

The hit of the summer has been a simple fruit crisp. I make it with whatever stone fruit is languishing here: I’ve used cherries in every one, along with white or yellow nectarines, peaches, apricots that are too mushy to eat out of hand. You can use plums if you like them (I don’t, but if someone gives me plums or pluots they are probably going into fruit crisp). You can supplement with frozen fruit or canned fruit as stone fruit season fades, but it is glorious right now made with fresh fruit.

Here is how I make it:

I get out an 8″ x 8″ Pyrex pan and make sure the middle rack in my oven is available. I assemble all eligible fruit on the counter by the cutting board, giving cherries a quick rinse in a bowl of water. Keep that bowl handy — you will use it again.

I put the 8″ x 8″ pan on the counter and start slicing fruit into it. I start with cherries, halving them, removing the pit with my thumb and dropping the halves into the pan. When I have used up whatever cherries I have, I cut up nectarines, apricots or peaches into the same pan, in chunks or wedges — it doesn’t matter. I do this until the pan is three-quarters full of fruit — I don’t measure the fruit: if you don’t have enough, you can add a can of sour cherries or peach slices or apricots, or some handy frozen fruit.

When I have cut up all of the fruit I turn the oven on to 375 degrees F. While it heats, I make the topping.

I empty the cherry-washing water into our waste-water bowl. I take the now empty, damp bowl and add

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup almond flour

1 Tbsp unbleached flour

2/3 cup brown sugar

Dashes of cinnamon and freshly-grated nutmeg. Sometimes a dash of ginger.

Using a pastry blender, I cut in 1/3 cup unsalted butter. That I measure using the handy-dandy guide on the butter wrapper. I blend the butter and dry ingredients until the topping looks uniformly crumbly. I drop the topping by large handfuls on top of the fruit, trying to cover the whole top. It always works — this is an easy recipe.

Carry your assembled crisp to the preheated oven. Bake on the middle rack for 35-45 minutes, depending on how much browning you like: we like ours brown.

Some notes: I use almond flour here because I think the flavor enhances stone fruit and also because it adds a bit of protein to dessert. You can use white or whole wheat flour instead if you like. I add the tablespoon of unbleached flour for binding the topping — you may not need it. I use unsalted butter because that is what we buy. I like cinnamon and nutmeg with fruit. I also like ginger. I haven’t tried cardamom, but it’s only a matter of time.

For me, the level of sweetness in this crisp is ideal. You don’t have to sweeten the fruit because some of the topping sifts down during baking and does it for you. Similarly, the topping thickens the juices. I like the crisp warm or cold. I usually eat it plain, but you could eat it with ice cream, whipped cream, yogurt. I’ve been known to reheat it topped with milk in the microwave, or stir a serving into oats as I cook them. If you like fruit desserts, give it a try.

Just a reminder: I still have openings in my July 15-16 Natalie Goldberg-style writing practice retreat, so, if your idea of a treat is two days devoted to writing, reading aloud and meditation, please consider joining us for $80.00 USD. I also welcome new students to my ongoing Monday AM Practice Group for either July 10, 17, 24 and 31 or August 7, 14, 21 and 28. Each four-week session costs $100.00 USD payable via PayPal at PayPal.Me/yourbusker. Yes, you can sign up for both July and August and the retreat as well if you are hot to write this summer. And no one says you can’t eat stone fruit crisp during your meal breaks!