Aug 06 2012
I Am That Merry Wanderer Of The Night
It’s midsummer, and it’s fruit season. Luscious, juicy, ripe, sugary fruit. Right now, peaches and blueberries are everywhere, and other than eating them by the bowl- or handful, we can also turn them into the most decadent desserts. The two flavors pair up wonderfully well. I happened to have had some peaches at home from the farmer’s market, and a pint of blueberries in the fridge that I needed to take care of. Coincidence? I think the fruit fairies had it all planned out from the start.
I started looking around for recipes for fruit cobblers, but nothing I came up with really appealed to me. I wanted something not too cake-y, a little bit crunchy, and mostly fruit. It occurred to me I was looking for the wrong thing, and switched to crumbles instead of cobblers. Success! The topping for a crumble is just the right combination of sweet and crispy, somewhat akin to granola (but softer), and exactly what I wanted. After a little bit of looking around, I found just the right thing at FineCooking.com. What follows is based on their recipe, which I’ve adapted a bit. Serve it warm with a little bit of ice cream (like the plum ice cream I recently made) for a dessert you’ll be dreaming about for days.
Call it a midsummer night’s dream, if you will.
Puck
Peach and Blueberry Crumble
Fruit Filling
4 peaches
1 pint blueberries
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp corn starch
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
Topping
1 cup flour
1 stick butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
A pinch of salt
1 cup old-fashioned oats
First, plunge the peaches in boiling water for about a minute.
Next, place the peaches in an ice bath. This will make the skins easy to remove.
The skins will slip right off. You can now slice the peaches.
Mix the flour, sugars, salt and butter with your hands until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.
Incorporate the oats. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Ginger and lemon, the secret weapons for this recipe.
Blend the corn starch in the lemon juice and add the ginger.
Mix the fruit and lemon mixture together in an oven-proof dish.
Spread one half of the topping on the fruit and bake in preheated 375F oven for 20 min. Add the remaining topping and bake for an additional 15 to 20 min.
A perfect summer dessert
Serve with some ice cream and thank the dessert fairies.
That looks divine!
Thank you, Mary! It wasn’t bad.