The Perfect Crisp

There are times when I am completely awed by Mother Nature’s innate deliciousness. Consider the perfect balance in a ripe plum. A good one has sweet fragrant flesh and a sour skin that sets it all off wonderfully. But there it is, all on its own, without the interference of human hands, plucked right off a tree and popped into an eager mouth, perfect just the way it is.

I revel in the end of the season’s bounty and the cool nights that beg for a warm, simple dessert. The last days of summer often trigger desperate and adamant refusals to give up the season gone by — evident in a proliferation of lobster tans and way too many short shorts. Not from me. My absolute favorite way to celebrate the change of seasons — and the gorgeous stone fruits and berries that show up in the farmers markets at the end of August — is to bake a perfect crisp. I have a very simple and specific recipe that I use every time, with every fruit.

There are a couple rules I live by when it comes to making the perfect crisp:

1. Taste your fruit before you use it. This way you’ll know if you need to add a little more acid (citrus) or a little more sugar.

2.  When it comes to the topping, keep your butter cold! Whether it’s before you mix it in or after the topping’s been made, keep it cold until it goes into the oven if you want to avoid a goopy mess.

3. Get creative. Mix and match your berries and stone fruits — there are endless possibilities. The recipe below is for one of my personal favorite combos:

Topping

¾ cup flour
½ cup old-fashioned oats
½ cup loosely packed brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 orange, zested
8 tablespoons (1 ¼ stick) cold butter, cubed and chilled

Preheat the oven to 425º. In a large bowl combine flour, oats, brown and white sugar, and salt. Add vanilla extract and orange zest and mix thoroughly. Add the cold, cubed butter to the flour mixture and, using your fingers, mix together until it all comes together in a very loose dough. There will be unincorporated lumps of butter and some flour mixture left behind. Put the whole mixture in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

Filling:

4-6 Nectarines (depending on size), cut into 1/2 inch wedges
8 oz raspberries
¼ cup – ½ cup sugar, depending on sweetness of fruit
2 tablespoons flour
1 orange, juiced (use the orange you zested for the topping)

First and foremost, try the nectarines for sweetness. If they are very sweet and ripe, use less sugar than if they are a bit tart. Next, combine the nectarines, sugar, and orange juice in a large bowl, and using a wooden spoon gently combine. Sprinkle the flour over this mixture and combine gently. Pour the fruit mixture into a large baking dish and sprinkle the raspberries around so they are distributed evenly.

Next, take the crumble out of the refrigerator and, using your fingers, break off pieces of the topping and distribute evenly across the top of the fruit mixture. Do it quickly and if you’ve forgotten to preheat the oven by this point, put the whole thing back in the refrigerator until the oven is ready.

When the oven is heated to 425º cook the crisp for about 15-25 minutes until the top has begun to brown to a nice golden color. Reduce the heat to 350º  and bake for another 25-30 minutes or until the fruit begins to bubble up through the topping and the topping has become crisp around the edges and has the look of a well-baked cookie.

Variations:

This recipe can be made using any combination of fruit: Try peaches and apples with blueberries or plums with blackberries. It’s up to you! If you are using apples, peaches, or plums use lemon juice instead of orange juice in the topping. Start with half the lemon’s zest and add more if needed. If using apples, add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg to the filling and swap in lemon juice for orange juice in the filling as well as the topping.

Photo: joyosity