Blueberry "Soft"

O.k., I am back from my vacation. I will have an extensive post coming on that soon but I wanted to get some recipes up first. I have two that deal with my favorite thing about summer: fruit. I love the fruits of summer. I love the peaches and cherries. I love the berries: straw, red, blue, and black. I love the plums, so varied in size, texture, color, and flavor. Oh and the figs! So erotically soft and moist they are.

Mostly I just like to eat them out of hand. My love of baking, though, encourages me to make any dessert that I can. I make pies, crips, tarts, galettes, turnovers, you name it. So today's post will focus on my favorite "short notice" dessert; the crisp.

A good crisp should be just that. Crisp. It should be crisp on top with a luscious layer of soft and flavorful fruit underneath. Over the years I have experimented with various toppings. Often the topping is a type of streusel topping made with oats, butter, flour, sugar, and spices. I eventually settled on using blanched and chopped almonds in place of the oats so that I could get a really good crispy and crunchy topping.

But like I said, this is my "short notice" dessert. So I find that one day blueberries are on sale a the store. So, naturally, I buy some. I bring them home confident that I have all the ingredients on hand to make a crisp. I root through my strategically unorganized spice cabinet and get what I need. Then I mosey on over to the pantry and find no nuts. None. Zilch. I do, however, have rolled oats. They will have to do. Slightly crestfallen, I head over to my workspace and begin prep on my Bluberry Not-So-Crisp.

The nice thing about a crisp is that all you need are a few ingredients, most of which most of you will have on hand. That is why it is such a good dessert to have on short notice. They are incredibly easy to just throw together. I never even use a recipe anymore and, with little enough practice, you won't need one either.

I tossed my blueberries into a bowl and mixed them with a pinch of salt, cinnamon, about 1/4 cup of sugar, a tablespoon or so of black molasses, a little lemon zest and juice, and about a tablespoon of flour to help thicken the juice. Stir it all together and let it rest while you prepare the topping. I like the molasses with blueberries. It give it an old New England flair. I actually got the idea of molasses with blueberries while doing some research on colonial desserts. I came across a Blueberry Grunt that called for molasses and have been hooked ever since. But if you don't like molasses just leave it out and up the amount of sugar slightly. Also, I don't like my fruit desserts very sweet as I like to taste the fruit. I tend to cut back on the sugar quite a bit so if you like your desserts sweeter then up your sugar amount by 1/4 to 1/2 cup, or to taste.

For the topping I mixed into another bowl the flour, butter, oats, salt, and brown sugar. These ingredients are mixed together until they feel like sand with visible clumps of butter.


Once the topping was mixed I put the filling into a baking dish large enough to hold it. Make sure that there is still room for the topping. I spread the topping evenly over the fruit filling.

I baked mine at 375° until the top was nicely browned and the juices were bubbly. I also tend to bake my crisps on a baking pan lined with foil or parchment paper. This way when the juices bubble over the clean up will be easy. Also, the juices won't burn in the oven.

Let the crisp cool before you cut into it. Other wise you will sear the taste buds off of your tongue and you won't be able to enjoy it once it does cool. That would be no fun at all. I bit into this one and thought, "It's not crisp. It's a layer of soft followed by another layer of soft. But, damn, it's good!" So that's why I call it a Blueberry Soft. And good it was. Yum.


The recipe below is for my Fruit Crisp. Should you choose to make a Soft then just substitute rolled oats (not instant) for the almonds. As you can see by my description above and the recipe below there is quite a discrepancy. The recipe below is tried and true. Use it as a starting point to get a feel for how to make a crisp. Soon you will end up winging it like I did with the Blueberry Soft.

Summer Fruit Crisp

FOR THE FILLING:
8 cups mixed fresh berries: blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries (pitted)
1-2 Tbsp. Flour
2 - 3 Tbsp. sugar, depending upon sweetness of berries
½ tsp. finely grated lemon zest

FOR THE TOPPING:
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup melted butter
½ cup finely chopped almonds.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To prepare filling, toss berries with flour, sugar and lemon zest. Set aside.

2. To make topping, in a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, spices and salt. With your fingers mix in butter and almonds. Coarse crumbs will form.

3. Pour filling into a 9-inch square or round pan (do not grease first). Using your fingers, form topping mixture into 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch crumbs and spread over the topping. Bake until filling bubbles and topping is light golden, about 55 minutes. Let cool slightly. Serve.

Yield: 6 servings.