Crisp apples, tender peaches, flavorful pears, my courtyard is loaded with our fall fruit harvest. I love using these fruits to make tasty “crisps” for dessert. They are much easier to make than a pie and I prefer the flavorful crunchy topping with the baked fruit over a traditional pie crust. Here is a quick and easy recipe for making this warm, crunchy, sweet and tart dessert using your favorite fruits…. and if you don’t have fresh fruits available, you can use a can of tart cherries…
For an end~of~summer cookout I decided to make individual tarts in my favorite little Weck canning jars, the canning jars give the dessert a rustic charm and they also make serving and clean up a breeze.
I love seeing the pretty fruit colors through the glass with the contrasting crunchy top. Everyone loved nibbling every last bit of the fruit and crunch that bubbled over the sides from their own personal dessert.
Ingredients
serves 8
topping
1/2 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt
filling
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
{I like almond with cherries, vanilla with most anything else}
4 cups fruit
a pinch of salt
a pinch of salt
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, ginger and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl, toss together.
Pour in melted butter and blend until crumbly.
In another medium bowl, mix together the egg, flour and vanilla. Add the fruit to the bowl and stir until it is evenly coated with egg mixture.
Spoon the fruit mixture into the clean canning jars
about 1/2 inch from the top.
Mound the oatmeal topping over the fruit.
Put the jars on a tray to capture any of the mix that bubbles over.
Slide the tray into the heated oven and allow to bake for 55 minutes.
When they are finished, allow them to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Top with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream if desired.
Now, you know I am all about fresh, fresh, fresh, so it may surprise you learn that I used canned cherries for some of these crisps. I absolutely love the tart~sweetness of pie cherries, but the fresh version is hard to come by. I keep these Oregon brand red tart cherries in my pantry year round. In the winter, they are the perfect foil for a rich raclette, and in the summer… they make a marvelous crisp. It is a great quality canned fruit and I love the look of the label. Two cans of the cherries was a little short of the 4 cups called for in the recipe
so I used fresh apricot slices {in some of the extra cherry juice} for 2 of the jars.
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To make a single, full sized crisp click on Rhubarb Crisp.
happy baking!
Emily – our lives are running parallel!
Daughter just made her first crisp yesterday. We used frozen peaches and fresh black berries (Costco). Only a bit of flour and salt on the berries, buttered the casserole dish, and the topping is nearly identical to yours – less half the sugar. WE like it tart so the ice cream balances it out. I prefer no ice cream – on/off pies too.
Where in Oregon did you pick berries for that first summer job?
Thanks for western WA's "wild black berry" report, just as I assumed.
The most memorable individual dessert of my life was chocolate souffle and the condiment tray was passed around…. chopped nuts, cream, fruit, fudge sauce, what else would you add?
Cheers!
Oh my gosh this looks wonderful, Emily. I love little Weck jars too!
Trying this for sure.
Teresa
xoxo
this looks amazing! thanks for sharing!
ps – check out my awesome Jack Rogers giveaway!
Linda – The souffle with the toppings sounds great. When I picked berries it was somewhere south of Canby {I remember my teacher who drove the bus would tell me that was her "happy sign"}. It was a time, lots of my friends would do it as well.
Your crisp sounds great, our fresh peaches are so ripe, I may need to make another batch.
Teresa, hope you have a chance to try it, you can find the jars on amazon or crate and barrel.
Whitney, love your blog and I am keeping my fingers crossed for the Jack Rogers giveaway.