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July 2004
Apricots And Cherries Are Here
One of my all time favorite summer desserts is an apricot
cherry tart. If you've ever made a tart, you know how
delicious the buttery flaky dough can be, but how hard
it is to make on a hot summer day (unless you have
air-conditioning). If the butter starts to melt you can
kiss the flakiness good-bye. My other pet peeve with
baking tarts is having to plan so far in advance.
It's a multi-step process that should be started the
night before you want to serve the tart. I finally got
fed up with the demands of the tart dough not letting me
take full advantage of the short apricot cherry season.
Trying fruit crisps at different restaurants inspired me
to make an apricot cherry crisp as a less labor intensive
alternative to tart. I looked through several crisp
recipes and after a couple of tries adopted the best
parts of them to create a crispy, earthy, and nutty topping.
It works well with all summer fruits and berries, but apricots
and cherries are still my favorite combination. The tart and
creamy apricots are a great match to the sweet and juicy
cherries in flavor, texture, and color. And now I don't have
to check the weather or plan far advance in order to enjoy them.
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Apricot Cherry Crisp
Serves 4
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Ingredients
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Directions
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For Topping:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/2 stick butter, cut into 8 pieces
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup sliced almonds
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Preheat oven to 375F.
Using a stand up mixer:
Combine all the topping ingredients in the bowl of a stand up mixer. Attach bowl and flat beater to mixer. Cover mixer with a kitchen towel to avoid ingredients flying out of the bowl when you turn on the mixer. Mix on low speed a few minutes until all butter is incorporated. Keep topping refrigerated while preparing the fruit.
Using a hand mixer:
Mix brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt with a spoon in a large bowl. Add butter and mix with hand mixer on low speed until butter is incorporated into dry ingredients. Stir in oats and almonds using a spoon.
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1 1/2 Lb apricots (about 12)
1/2 Lb sweet cherries
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
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Pit apricots and cherries. Cut apricots into quarters. Put all fruit into a
bowl. Sprinkle with sugar and toss.
Butter an 8x8x2 baking dish. Add apricots and cherries.
Sprinkle the fruit evenly with oat-almond topping.
Bake at 375F for 35 minutes or until the topping is browned and fruit juices are bubbling.
Cool on a rack for 30 minutes.
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Vanilla ice-cream
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Scoop into bowls and serve with vanilla ice-cream.
Leftovers: Cool completely, then cover and refrigerate. Rewarm in 375F oven for 15 minutes before serving.
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