Today's recipe got its name a decade ago in a rustic mountain cabin during a family reunion. We'd spent the morning canoeing around the lake from one wild blueberry bush to another, gathering fruit.
We returned with our buckets of blue gold to a kitchen stocked with few ingredients and no cookbooks except an ancient copy of "The Joy of Cooking."The "Joy" fruit crisp recipe was perfect because it required nothing but our precious berries, a little butter, flour and brown sugar. It's also fast and can be whipped up on the spur of the moment because you don't have to wait for butter to soften.
Through the years we've experimented, adding cinnamon and almond extract and substituting oatmeal for part of the flour.
Sometimes we use half blueberries and half peaches or blackberries. But the basic formula is always the same.
VACATION FRUIT CRISP
4 cups berries
1 stick cold butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick (not old-fashioned) rolled oats
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon almond extract
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Rinse the berries in a colander and set aside to drain. Remove the paper wrapper from the butter and set it aside. Cut the butter into teaspoon-size pieces and place it in a mixing bowl. Add the flour, oats, brown sugar and cinnamon. Using 2 knives or a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it is chunky, with pieces resembling small peas.
Use the wrapper from the butter to lightly grease an 8-inch-square baking pan. Shake any remaining water from the berries and pour them into the baking pan. Sprinkle the almond extract over the berries and stir to blend. Sprinkle the flour-sugar mixture over the berries.
Bake 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Serve at once. Serves 6.
- Cook's note: This recipe, adapted from "The Joy of Cooking," is easier to put together if the butter is cold. You can use any combination of berries in this crisp, even peaches or pitted cherries. It is even more wonderful topped with vanilla ice cream.
- Approximate values per serving: 413 calories (37 percent from fat), 17 G fat (10 G saturated), 44 MG cholesterol, 3 G protein, 64 G carbohydrates, 4 G dietary fiber, 186 MG sodium