Every Wednesday a luscious box of fruit is delivered to my house. We split this delivery with friends and she picks up the fruit box and brings it to my house. On Thursday I pick up the veggies.
Because I have not unraveled the mysteries of this
CSA, I almost never know what will be delivered in advance. Although there are Tuesday deliveries, their newsletter arrives late on our delivery day and isn't posted up on their website until even later. Only twice since we've joined have they divulged on twitter what is getting packed in their boxes.
I never realized until now how much I'm not a surprise girl. I have no idea why it matters, it's not like there is any reason I need to know in advance. Just another quirk of me.
Until now, the fruit has been sliced up and eaten, eaten whole and twice we've juiced the oranges. I decided it was time to do a little baking. After poking around the cookbook collection, I found a recipe for Apricot-Cherry Crisp in the Fields of Greens cookbook. I love this cookbook. Everything we've made out of it has worked and tasted delicious. Since both fruits called for were delivered this week it was time to get cooking.
Being me, I did make a few changes. Nothing huge. The recipe called for Bing cherries but Ranier had been delivered. I figured since both are sweet cherries they should swap out just fine. I also increased the sugar just a bit. Having been the victim of too tart baked goods too many times, I always now taste the fruit mixture and adjust as needed. Also, the recipe calls for a 9" square or round pan. I have to say that 8 cups of fruit and almost 2 cups of topping is an awful lot for that size pan. To be safe, and in the interest of avoiding an oven bubble over, I used a 7" x 11" pan.
This is sure to be appearing again over the summer. The topping would be great with any fruit that likes to be baked - peaches, berries, pears or apples.
Topped with a little vanilla ice cream or whipped cream it's a great summer dessert.
Apricot Cherry Crisp
from Fields of Greens by Annie Somerville
The crisp topping can be doubled with the extra frozen for a quick dessert another day. Change out the nuts to fit the fruit used or leave them out entirely for a nut free dessert.
Crisp Topping
1 C unbleached flour
1/4 C granulated sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1/4 t salt
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 C butter cut into small cubes
1/4 C chopped walnuts
In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, salt and spices. Add in the butter and work it in until the mixture is crumbly and begins to hold together. Stir in the nuts.
Filling
1 1/2 lbs apricots, sliced, about 6 cups
1/2 lb sweet cherries, pitted, about 2 cups
2 t lemon zest
1 t grated fresh ginger
1/2 C granulated sugar, adjust to the sweetness of your fruit
2 T unbleached flour
In a large bowl stir all of the ingredients together. Pour fruit mixture into a 9" baking dish.
Cover the fruit with the crumb topping and bake about 50 minutes until the topping is golden and the fruit juices bubble around the edges of the pan.
printable recipe - apricot_cherry_crisp.pdf
-- marcella
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