AND A GLUTEN-FREE VERSION, TOO!

If you are anything like me, you love fruit pie but have no patience to make crust. You lost me at rolling pin. You lost me at ‘sift’. You lost me at…

So I’m happy to present to you something just as good as a fruit pie but ridiculously easy. You don’t even have to be that precise, which is a miracle in baking. Seriously… I once started this during dinner, for people who asked for it (people have started to ask for it a lot) so I got up and prepped it, which takes about 10 minutes max. Mind you, I’d had a martini or three so I did it from memory and was pretty damn imprecise with my measuring, throwing this here, tossing this there. And it was still just as wonderful. 

It’s terrific with peaches, which are fresh right now. But I love it even more with mixed berries: blueberries, blackberries and raspberries combined. Or just one of those, if you have a favorite. Or mix in peaches, too, with all the berries. (Don’t peel the peaches, no need for that… see? Easy!)

As noted in the recipe below, if you need gluten free, just substitute Almond Flour for the regular flour. The consistency is a little different but it tastes terrific. I often do it with almond flour anyway because I love the flavor of almonds so much. 

For the recipe, 

The crisp is great with ice cream, sure, but I love it most slightly warm with a little heavy cream drizzled on top.  I don’t like desserts cloyingly sweet so this is a tart crisp. If you like a lot of sweet, add a little more sugar to the filling. But trust me. Tart is perfect. This will become a staple. 

*Remember also: if you want to go a little fancier, don’t forget the fruit tarts I posted last summer. A little more work yes but wow what a payoff! Click here.

EASY FRUIT CRISP

Ingredients

• 6-8 cups fresh fruit: blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and/or sliced peaches (no need to peel)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• juice of 1 small lemon
• 2 T sugar
• 1 cup plus 3 T flour (or almond flour for gluten-free)
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup sliced almonds (or slivered but I liked sliced better)
• 1 cup cold butter, cut into cubes

 

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350. Butter a 9 x 13 casserole.

In a large bowl, toss the fruit with the cinnamon, extracts, lemon juice, sugar and 3 T flour (or almond flour.) Pour into the buttered casserole. 

In another bowl, combine the flour (or almond flour), oats, brown sugar and almonds. Mix very well. Add the cubed butter and, with your hands, mush all together until a crumbly mixture has formed. (If it still has little pieces of butter, that is fine.)

Spread the mixture over the fruit. You can have places where the fruit shows, no problem.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until bubbling. I like to then broil just a bit if you want the top really crispy. But be careful it can blacken easily.