Cobblers, Crisps and Crumbles

For the technically minded among you, here’s a brief primer on the differences between cobblers, crisps and crumbles, which are especially popular in Washington because of our glorious abundance of fruit.

A crisp’s topping contains oats; that’s what crisps as it cooks. A crumble doesn’t have oats, but it does have a streusel topping of flour, brown sugar and butter. Cobblers are topped with cake batter, biscuit or cookie dough, and the fruit bubbles up between the mounds of dough while cooking so it resembles a cobbled road (or so the story goes).

Some cobblers are made upside-down — that is, the batter goes in first, with the fruit spooned over it, and then during cooking the batter rises around the fruit to create the cobbled effect. Either way, it’s a big dish of warm, buttery fruit and sugar, so why be picky? Whatever you call these fruit desserts — crisps, crumbles, cobblers, upside-down cobblers — they’re all equally comforting and more or less equally caloric.

Here’s my recipe for fruit crisp, which is different every time, depending on what’s in season and my mood. It’s loosely based on the fruit crisp recipe in my battered but deeply beloved “Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook,” the same one my dear old mom used, then handed down to me when she realized she could just let Dad do most of the cooking.

Monika’s Favorite Fruit Crisp

Chop up 6 cups of nearly anything — apples, rhubarb, pears, plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries, blackberries, strawberries or blueberries. Yup, that’s a lot of fruit, but I prefer a big fruit-to-topping ratio. Soften apples and rhubarb by cooking in the microwave for 3 to 5 minutes. You can skip this step, but I like my fruit tender.

Mix in a teaspoon of vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon and ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon salt and a dash of nutmeg and cloves. Truth bomb: I don’t measure any of the spices. I just throw ’em in there. Also, don’t disregard the salt; that’s the secret ingredient to bring out the fruit’s flavor.

The sugar in the fruit filling varies depending on the fruit. For tart apples and rhubarb, add 3 to 5 tablespoons of sugar. For very sweet blueberries, you may want only 1 or 2 tablespoons. To thicken juicy fruit, add 1 to 3 tablespoons of flour. Peaches are notoriously juicy, but every fruit will produce liquid as it cooks. The flour is important to keep your crisp from boiling over in the oven or running all over your dessert plate where it’s hard to scrape up with a fork, thus necessitating embarrassing plate-licking.

In a separate bowl, mix together 3/4 cup of rolled oats (or 1/2 cup oats plus 1/4 cup flaked coconut or chopped nuts), 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar and 1/4 cup flour, plus a repeat of all the spices you added to the fruit. If you’re me, add more ginger. Cut in 1/2 to 2/3 of a stick of cold butter. I just use my fingers to get an even texture, about the consistency of couscous.

Dump all the fruit in a pie dish or 9-by-9-inch baking dish and spread the dry ingredients evenly over the top. Don’t pat it down! You want the hot air to get all up in those little pockets and toast the oats. Bake in a 375-degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the topping takes on a golden hue.

Let it cool for 30 minutes to an hour before serving with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or just plain cream. Store in the fridge overnight and I promise you, it will taste even better the next day for breakfast. After all, it’s a full serving of fruit (extra fiber) plus grains (flour contains vitamin B, iron and some other vitamin-y substances, I’m sure) and butter (calcium). Here’s to strong bones!

Upside Down Peach Cobbler

Melt 1/2 cup butter (a whole stick) in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. In a separate bowl, combine 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Add 1 cup milk and stir until just moistened. Pour batter over butter but don’t stir.

Next, boil 5 cups fresh peach slices with 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice or orange juice, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon and ginger. Let it boil for just 1 minute then remove from heat and spoon evenly over batter without stirring. Sprinkle with a mixture of 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon sugar and a pinch of nutmeg.

Bake at 375 degrees for 40 or 45 minutes. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Spoons are all right, but a shovel will do even better. Please sanitize your shovel before using it as a utensil.

Blackbarb Crumble

Combine 3 cups of fresh rhubarb, cut into 1/2 -inch chunks, with 3 cups fresh blackberries. (If you prefer softer rhubarb, microwave for 3 to 5 minutes first.) Toss with 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon ginger and 1/4 teaspoon cardamom or cinnamon. Spoon into a pie dish or 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

For crumble topping, mix 1 cup flour with 1 cup brown sugar (not packed), 1/4 teaspoon each cinnamon and salt, and 1 stick of cold butter, cut into chunks. Use a pastry blender or your hands to mix until it’s combined into pea-sized pieces. Sprinkle evenly over fruit.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes, until the top is golden and the filling is bubbly. Let cool for at least half an hour. Make yourself a cup of coffee and then, while you’re waiting for the crumble to cool, eat all the vanilla ice cream you were going to serve with the crumble. It’s fine. Everything’s fine. Or not exactly fine, but not so bad that you can’t have crumble and ice cream, in whatever order you choose.