ina garten is my cooking hero. no...scratch that. outside of
my own immediate family, ina garten is my cooking hero. now, don't get me wrong, i think that the fantastic bloggers over at
smitten kitchen and
bake or break are pretty fantastic, and i'm a big ole fan of Lynne Rossetto Kasper at the
Splendid Table on APM, but something about Ina Garten's recipes and style really resonate with me. For her, food is a way of showing her love, her care, her respect for other people.the
Barefoot Contessa has this great way of balancing simplicity with detail. to me, this, and creating something that gives joy, tastes good, and brings people together, is what food is all about.
this summer crumble recipe from the barefoot contessa blends freshness, simplicity, love, and togetherness in just the right way. i'd decided to make the crumble in the first place because boone and i were both going out of town and i had a huge pile of peaches that were all on the over ripe side of ripe, a huge bag of fresh blueberries from my aunt's farm in south mississipi, plus we were heading to a dinner party for some friends who'd just moved into a big old farmhouse. i was running a little behind schedule and decided i'd wait to bake it until i got there...it was so easy that i pulled it together and we were only a few minutes late. as far as the baking goes, it was too bad they've got an antique stove and oven combo. it turns out the stove works perfectly but the oven...not so much. anyway, that just meant that i saved the crumble, baked it at my house, and served it to boone as a going-away brunch before he left for a week long trip to NC, then took the rest over to a pal and new neighbor. it was a hit.
the next time you're looking for an easy-peasy dessert, try this one on for size.
Blueberry & Peach Crumble
Serves 6 to 8-ish (depending on how hungry you are)
What you need:
For the Fruit:
4 to 6 ripe peaches
1 cup fresh blueberries (mine were fresh but I'd frozen them the day before)
2 tsp grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup stevia (or 1/2 cup sugar)
1/4 cup flour
For the Crumble:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 cup stevia
1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 pound (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced
What to do:
Preheat the Oven to 350, and then get your stockpot out and boil some water. cut an "x" in the bottom of each peach and then drop the peaches into the boiling water for 30 seconds or so, and pull them out with tongs and drop them into ice water or cold, cold water..Let them cool briefly. The immersion will help you easily peel the skin off, which helps with texture and flavor. They'l start slipping and sliding everywhere, so be careful as you cut them into smaller wedges. (I sliced from top to bottom and the pit came out pretty easily.)
grate the lemon zest, and then mix the peach slices, blueberries, stevia, flour, lemon zest and lemon juice together and pour into your baking dish. my hero suggests using ramekins, an idea i LOVE but one that just didn't work since i needed to transport them.
after you've prepped the fruit, it's time to make the crumble. y'all, this was so crazy easy.. i'm a dough moron (meaning that rarely does pie dough or pizza dough or bread dough EVER turn out like i want it to, but this was too simple to mess up)
basically, you cut the butter into little pieces then mix it with the flour, brown sugar, stevia, and salt using your paddle attachment on your mixer. i smushed it around with my hands a little bit for good measure, but once everything was combined and rolling around in little pea-sized balls, i knew it was ready to go. i took the dough-peas out of the mixer and smushed them again into flat little pieces, then laid them on top of the fruit until in covered most of it. (of COURSE you could do something fancy with cookie cutters if you felt so inclined, but remember, i was pressed for time and not really into that sort of thing, anyway.)
Bake the crumble for 40 to 45 minutes at 350 until it's bubbly and brown, and serve. Honestly, i'm of the school that pie NEEDS vanilla ice cream to "cut the sweet" but this was just the right amount of sweet and fruit, so it didn't even need it.besides, my weight watchers commitment is totally on a backside with leading a teacher retreat, moving to a new town and house, going to a 4th of July BBQ, and attending a week long conference in LA so i couldn't in good conscience have this crumble AND ice cream for breakfast.
but you could. ;)
Labels: breakfast or brunch, dessert, fruit, summer
