Seasonal Recipe
Plum Crisp
Adapted from Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone by Deborah Madison (Broadway, 1997)
Serves 6
Crisps are dead-easy summer desserts, simply sweetened slices of fruit topped with a mix of butter, sugar, flour and oats that turns into crunchy topping after baking. Most any fruit works, though a crisp is an ideal use for softer fruits, like peaches and plums, that often refuse to hold together well enough for a slice of pie.
The topping here freezes beautifully, so it's worth the effort to make a double (or triple) batch while you're at it. Simply pull the frozen topping from the freezer, and crumble over the fruit. There's no need to thaw before popping it in the oven, so you can throw together dessert in less time than it takes the oven to preheat.
Ingredients:
- 6 tbsp. butter, in chunks
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup flour
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. nutmeg
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 3 lb. plums, pitted and quartered
- ¼ cup honey
- Zest of an orange
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Toss together the plums, honey, and orange zest in a bowl, and rest while you prepare the topping.
- Using your fingertips, or a stand mixer with paddle attachment, mix together the butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon, until it's a coarse, crumbly mixture. Pour the plums into an 8x8 baking dish, and scatter the crisp topping over. Place on a baking sheet to catch any drips. Bake until the fruit bubbles and the topping is brown and crisp, about 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature.
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