What's for Dinner Wednesday - Fruit Crisp

It's Wednesday again and I wanted to take a moment to celebrate the abundance of fresh fruit that suddenly dances onto the kitchen stage at this time of year. I love summer fruits and the way all the different coloured fruits make dishes so beautiful when you use them.

I also want to be able to eat fruits in all their deliciousness without spending too much time in the kitchen - let's face it, when the sun shines in the pacific Northwest we cannot afford to waste it by being in doors!

One of my favourite desserts to make are crisps. I love them because they are so very easy to make and I have yet to sample a bad one. They are a great way to use up the fruit that was irresistible at the farmers market, but now sits in the fruit bowl in a race against time before the warm weather makes it turn bad.

I think it is a delicious game to try out different combinations of fruit and see what happens!!

I don't generally use a recipe to make crisps because it does not need to be an exact science, so if you are a little short on something it will probably turn out just fine. I did measure by putting my handfuls into measuring cups today to be able to list it here. Feel free to try out different spice combinations as well as fruit that can make things a little interesting. On this particular occasion I was thinking how delicious ginger could be with the peach so I threw a pinch of that in with the mix.



Ingredients
FILLING
2 peaches, peeled and sliced
2 nectarines, peeled and sliced
1 little box of blueberries (just over a cup I think)
1 TBsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp cornstarch

TOPPING
1/2 C Flour (I used an all purpose gluten free flour)
1/2 C quick cook oats (I used GF ones)
1/2 C brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tbsp butter (cold and chopped)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Put the peeled, sliced peaches and nectarines in with the washed blueberries (peaches, blueberries and nectarines together filled about 4 cups. Mix in the lemon juice and vanilla extract. In a different bowl mix the cornstarch and cinnamon together. Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit and stir to coat it all.

Pour the fruit mixture into a greased cooking dish, mine was a 2 1/2 quart oval one but use what you have and you can adjust fruit quantity to fit.

To make the topping, mix the flour, sugar and oats together in a bowl. Cut in the cold butter with a pastry blender or two knives until it looks like breadcrumbs. Pread topping over the fruit.

Cook for about 40 minutes until the fruit is bubbling and the smell is just too good to leave it in the oven any longer. Let it cool for a little while because the fruit is really hot.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream- or if you like me have left over french cream fruit dip from a different day that works too!!

Enjoy! And I would love to hear your favourite fruit combos