It's the height of summer which also means the height of farmers' markets and farm stands. Things are starting to ripen and fruit bounty is at an all-time high. Recently in Michigan, we brought home the freshest, sweetest farm grown hand-picked Blueberries, and they were so sweet you didn't really need any sugar on top of them. If blueberries tasted this good all year round, I would eat them all the time.
My favorite things to do is bake a blueberry pie but it's a bit labor-intensive and my husband was asking me to make a pie one night when we got back from our trip. I was just too tired from driving in traffic for three hours and as you know, fresh fruit in the fridge doesn't last that long. So I was getting anxious about the blueberries and I knew I needed to do something with them. You don't want to waste good, fresh, farm fruit. So when you're tired and yet you want to kinda have a little bit of a pie experience, my go-to is to make a crisp.
You get that wonderful, syrupy pie filling and instead of a crust you get that yummy, crunchy, creamy topping. So I came up with this recipe with what I had on hand. I didn't have quite enough blueberries left to make a full crisp but I did have some cherry flavored cranberries in the pantry. So I put those in some hot water infused with Creme de Cassis-or Kirsch works too. The berries were complimented nicely with a lot of the berry and cherry flavor from the liquor and the 'Craisins'. I will be making this again. It's perfect with some ice cream!
So if you're feeling tired and yet you know you want to bake something up with some fresh fruit, try a crisp! It's super, super easy and delicious.
Blueberry and Creme de Cassis/Kirsch Soaked Dried Cherry-Cranberry Crumble
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and picked through
1 cup of cherry flavored Craisins or other dried cranberry
1/8 cups of sugar
1/8 cups of flour
2 tablespoons of Creme de Cassis or other cherry/berry flavored liquor like Kirsch
1/8 teaspoons of cinnamon
dash of salt
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of rolled oats
1/4 cup of flour
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of sugar
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup of cold butter
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚.
Place your dried cranberries in a heat-safe bowl, fill with water to cover the Craisins. Add the berry liquor, and cover with a small plate so that the steam and the water soaks into the cranberries for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile toss the blueberries and some cinnamon, salt, vanilla and sugar. When the Craisins are ready, drain them and give them a light squeeze with your hand but not too hard-you want some of the liquid in them. Toss into the blueberry mixture. Add the flour and toss to coat, then set-aside.
Meanwhile in a small bowl, add the rolled oats, flour, brown sugar, white sugar and a pinch of salt. Mix with a fork. Cut in the cold butter with a pastry cutter or with a couple knives until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
In an 8 x 8 baking dish or a 9-10" oblong shallow baking dish, pour the blueberry mixture and crumble the oat topping on top. Bake for about 40 to 45 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling nicely and syrupy and the topping is golden brown.
Let cool for about 10 minutes and then serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
