Auros (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} auros) wrote,@ 2008-05-09 10:16:00 |
|
| Current mood: |  happy |
Fruit Crisp makes writing papers less stressful. Or at least that's my theory.
And also my excuse for spending an hour or so making it, rather than writing.
Recipe derived from the most recent edition of the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook.
Filling:
- 5 cups of sliced fruit: apples, pears, peaches, apricots, whatever. If using any type of frozen fruit, thaw, but don't drain.
- zest from two small lemons or one medium-to-large one; orange zest would work fine too
- 2 to 3 tablespoons granulated sugar. If using blueberries, increase to 4 tablespoons. For tart cherries, increase to 1/2 cup. For rhubarb, increase to 3/4 cup. For blueberries, cherries, rhubarb, or strawberries, also mix 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour with the sugar.
Combine filling ingredients in a shallow two-quart baking dish.
Pre-heat oven to 375°F.
Topping:
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup (packed, not loose) brown sugar
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- spices, to taste; the recipe suggested 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, which is way too little spice; I probably used about 1.5 teaspoons of spice total, mixing allspice, cardamom cinnamon, clove, ginger, and nutmeg; for some fruits, tossing the fruit with a bit of vanilla extract before adding the sugar (and flour, if appropiate) might work well
- 1/4 cup butter (half a standard stick) cut into small cubes (I cut it 4x4x4, and that worked well)
- 1/4 cup chopped nuts and/or shredded unsweetened fresh coconut
In a large bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, flour, spices. Add butter and mix til you get coarse crumbs. The easiest way to get the right texture for crisp topping is to clean and dry your hands, and then pinch bits of the dry mix around the cubes of butter. Keep doing that as long as you can see identifiable bits of butter, then add the nuts and/or coconut and squish everything around a bit more. It helps if you have a friend who can scrape topping bits off your fingers with the back of a knife, when you're done.
Sprinkle topping evenly over filling.
Place baking dish in oven. I suggest putting the baking dish on top of another dish (say, a cookie sheet), so that if fruit juices bubble over they won't make a mess in the bottom of your oven.
Bake for 30-35 minutes (40 if fruit started out frozen), til topping begins to brown.
What I actually made last night was strawberry-rhubarb -- two pints of strawberries from the farmshare and three stalks of rhubarb from a friend's garden. Tasty for breakfast, topped with yogurt.
