So nice to be bitten by the baking bug. Seems like there has been a lull for a bit. Not anymore.
Firstly, an abundance of fragrant fresh fruit (thank you Trader Joe’s for having the best peaches this time of year).
Secondly, special people to bake for…Dad for a late Father’s Day gift and a dear friend for a birthday celebration and then there is just the fact that Case and I could eat fresh baked fruit goods every day, even for dinner.
Thirdly, it just feels like summer to be baking…Hermie and the kitties lounging about, the sun shining and Jaws playing on tv.
I started with just peaches, Dad loves loves loves a peach pie. Then I made a couple rustic tarts using leftover dough with peaches and cherries for me and Case. The big finale was a peach, cherry and blueberry crumble which I think was the best crumble I ever made. It must’ve been, it was gone in one evening and the birthday girl was very happy.
There aren’t any pictures of the best crumble I ever made only because as soon as it came out of the oven I was headed to the celebration and it was eaten. Trust me, it was beautiful, a vibrant shade of purply blue bubbling goodness. Below is the general recipe, the nice thing about a crumble is that you can estimate and roughly measure and it will be just fine and delicious.
This was my first time pitting fresh cherries. I read somewhere that you could use a straw and it worked even better than a cherry pitter. It doesn’t. After about five cherries it becomes warped and doesn’t work at all. So rather than going to get a cherry pitter I looked in the utensil drawer and there was the thing that goes onto a bottle of oil to make the pouring easier, a spout (pictured above). It worked perfect! I’m so happy with it I’m not even going to buy a cherry pitter!
The Best Crumble I Ever Made
3 to 4 c peaches, thinly sliced (ripe fragrant ones, leave skin on if thin nice skin, if you leave the skin on I recommend cutting your peach half in half across so that when you slice you end up with shorter slices)
2 c pitted fresh cherries
1 1/2 c fresh blueberries
1 lemon
dry ingredients to mix with fruit:
3 T sugar
3 T flour
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/4 t ground cinnamon
crumble topping:
1/2 c oats
1/4 c flour
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c sugar
dash of salt
1/4 c chilled unsalted butter cut into pieces
Mix the dry ingredients for fruit in a small bowl, set aside.
Mix crumble topping, cut butter into it so it looks crumbly, set aside.
Prepare fruit. Squeeze a little lemon on peaches after slicing.
Mix fruit. Add fruit dry ingredients, gently mix.
Lightly butter a square 8×8 dish or pie dish.
Pack fruit into dish, crumble crumble topping on top.
Bake at 350˚ for 1 hour. Best served warm and with vanilla ice cream on the side.
Note: For the peach pie and peach cherry tarts I just used my favorite peach pie recipe.
afternoon light | inside | 50 mm prime lens
