Triple Berry Crisp

Tim requested a crisp for Father's Day dessert. With berries reasonable and plentiful, a crisp seemed like the perfect dessert. You can use any combination of berries, I used blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. I served this with my favorite homemade vanilla ice cream, Alton Brown's Serious Vanilla Ice Cream.

Triple Berry Crisp
Adapted from All Recipes

1 1/2 cups fresh blackberries
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
4 tablespoons white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups butter
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.In a large bowl, gently toss together blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and white sugar; set aside.
3.In a separate large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cut in butter until crumbly. Press half of mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Cover with berries. Sprinkle remaining crumble mixture over the berries.
4.Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until fruit is bubbly and topping is golden brown.



I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday's, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday's and Tuesday's at the Table.

Caramel Apple Crisp - SMS

This week's Sweet Melissa Sunday's is hosted by my blogging pal, Susan at Baking With Susan. Susan and I joined Sweet Melissa Sunday's about the same time and became blogging friends. It is because of Susan I became involved in Operation Baking Gals. If you haven't been to Susan's blog, stop by and check it out. She's creative, funny and shares great recipes.

Things have been a bit hectic this weekend at our house. We spent all day yesterday looking for a new car. It's painful and exhausting. I compared it to trying on swimsuits. Ugh! After a long day of shopping and negotiating, we're the proud owners of an Escape Hybrid.

I am not good at making pie crusts. I've never made many and when I have they've always been a disaster. Of course, as is pretty normal for me, I am baking Sweet Melissa Sunday's on Sunday. I decided to try and make a double pie crust and get everything else done I needed to do today would be mistake. I would be frustrated and cussing like a sailor, not a good way to spend Sunday afternoon. Since it's Susan's week for hosting, I really wanted to participate, so I decided to make a Caramel Apple Crisp instead.

I made the filling pretty much as the recipe called for, with a couple of exceptions. I used Fuji apples and I couldn't resist, I added a little cinnamon. Since I didn't have any heavy cream. I decided to give the caramel sauce a try using evaporated milk. It worked pretty well, although I think I heated it too early and it developed a skin on the top. I made the standard crisp topping using oatmeal, brown sugar, flour and melted butter.

I baked the crisps at 350 for about 30 minutes. I took them out of the oven and they were beautiful, puffy and nicely browned. I guess I never realized crisps fall as they cool.




I love the addition of the caramel sauce to the apples. The cinnamon adds just the extra flavor needed to make this a great pie (crisp).

Check out the other Sweet Melissa Sunday's bakers here. I know you'll find some beautiful apple pies.

Strawberry, Rhubarb Crisp

My sister in law Terry was here last weekend and brought me several pounds of rhubarb. I've never been a big rhubarb fan. My early memories of rhubarb are my mother stewing rhubarb with sugar for my dad. He loves it that way, all I can say is YUCK. Instead of making my husbands favorite rhubarb dessert using a yellow cake mix, I decided to try a new receipe. If rhubarb is mixed with strawberries, I find it a bit more palatable. I did some searching and found this Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp recipe and changed it just a bit.



Strawberry, Rhubarb Crisp
Adapted from Food & Wine

FILLING
2 pounds rhubarb stalks, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 pound strawberries, hulled and quartered
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
TOPPING
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt


Preheat the oven to 375°.
Filling:
In a bowl, toss the rhubarb with 3/4 cup of the sugar and let stand for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. In another bowl, toss the strawberries with the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and let stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the rhubarb to the strawberries; discard any rhubarb juice. Add the cornstarch, lemon juice and vanilla to the fruit and stir well. Transfer the mixture to a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish.
Topping:Combine all of the ingredients in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, mix the ingredients together until large crumbs form.
Sprinkle the topping evenly over the filling.
Bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325° and continue baking for about 30 minutes longer, until the fruit filling is bubbling and the topping is nicely browned. Let the crisp rest for 10 to 20 minutes before serving.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.