Well, the Jamisons and I are on the outs. I have had a recent string of flops from A Real American Breakfast. After my first sub-par waffle results I attributed the fault to myself; however, after a lack-luster bran muffin recipe, I'm putting part of the blame with the authors, the lovely, yet sweet-goods challenged Jamisons. On both occasions I should have gone with my cook's intuition. Both recipes had some steps that I protested as I baked, but being the dutiful cookbook reviewer that I am, I followed the directions as a holy grail. That's not to say the book is a bust. I just think that I need to stick with their more savory dishes.The blogging timing for such disasters, however, was serendipitous. I had just made my go-to dessert for the Heartland Book Clubbers, and my friend Louise requested a Reems Eats post. How could I refuse the woman who arrived early and helped me in a last-minute toy and shoe clean-up effort? The same woman who claims to enjoy making pipe cleaner crafts with my 3-year-old? I couldn't, so here is my all-purpose crisp recipe.
I've posted a version of this before. I have to confess that I don't follow a recipe for the dessert that Reems's affectionately refer to simply as 'crisp.' So I did make a second crisp this week, in part, but not just because I wanted to nail down accurate ingredient quantities. No, you can never have enough crisp. My favourite bowl of crisp? The leftover breakfast bowl that I always manage to hide for myself.
Blueberry Apple Crisp was a good accompaniment to our discussion of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, not quite as appropriate as a potato peel pie might have been, but I'm fairly sure it was tastier.
Blueberry Apple Crisp
(for a 9 inch dish or similar casserole - I usually double this for reasons I've already discussed)
Combine filling ingredients in 9 inch pyrex dish or casserole:
4 apples - peel and sliced thinly (for an all apple version, double this number)
2 cups blueberries
2 T flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar (could also use honey or maple syrup)
In a separate bowl combine the topping ingredients:
1/3 melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (2/3 if you have a really sweet tooth)
1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup quick oats
2/3 cup old fashioned oats (could just double the quick oats and leave these out, but I like the texture from the two varieties)
If you use unsalted butter add a pinch of salt.
Combine the topping ingredients until crumbly.
Sprinkle evenly on top of fruit filling.
Bake crisp for 40 min at 350 degrees.
Top with vanilla ice cream for your warm dessert crisp. For your next morning breakfast crisp, a cup of tea alongside will do nicely.
OK, I feel that I should apologize for the photos - my only hope for half-way decent food photos is to take them in natural light, but alas this was an evening job.
