Nectarine and Blueberry Crisp is a comforting, warm, juicy, light, bubbly, baked summer dessert with a crispy crunchy topping and so delish with ice cream.
EVENT: A- Z RECIPE CHALLENGE
THEME : AN INGREDIENT BEGINNING WITH THE LETTER N
You may wonder why am I so gung-ho about making a dish that has an ingredient beginning with N. Well its all because I’m part of the group called A-Z Challenge. After letter M we took a break…a long break but we’re back. The group started by Vidya Narayan who blogs at Masala Chilli and Jolly Makkar who blogs at Homemade Recipes. The whole deal is that we have to use an ingredient that begins with a specific letter and it should be its English name.
For Letter N, I decided to use Nectarine and made a delish Nectarine and Blueberry Crisp. While we are still on the letter N, check out Jolly’s Nut Brittle with Honey. Yes, she has used only honey to make this tasty sweet treat. I love fried nuts with a bit of salt and red chilli powder sprinkled on top. Now to make them healthier and enjoy them without any guilt, try out Vidya’s Air Fried Spicy Masala Cashew Nuts.
My journey so far with A-Z Challenge:
Eggplant Curry/Baigan Bharta
Hyacinth Beans and Zucchini Sabji/Papdi ane Zucchini nu Shaak
My Story:
Now before we get into the whole recipe and its ingredients I’ve got to note down this little bit of 2020 memory. As my avid fans know, my blog is not only about recipes but also events, life experiences and my thoughts. Ever since the Corona Virus Pandemic began, though Kenya till now has not gone under total lockdown, most people have been careful and a few haven’t. Hubby being diabetic and at a greater risk, we decided not to venture out unnecessarily. This slowly gave rise to a new format of shopping.. not the online kind where you click click click, fill the basket and pay but mobile money or card. Have you heard of WhatsApp Shopping? No, well its caught on in a big way all over Mombasa. Its pretty simple, the vendor will send you a WhatsApp message that they are offering a service. If interested you ge tin touch with them. This way I have my fruits and vegetable vendor and my Supermarket. Before I go to bed, add my list of the things I want, next day they get delivered. Payment is made by Mpesa, Kenya’s biggest success – Mobile money.
With the supermarket its fun as for a particular product they will send three four photo options, you choose, pay and they deliver. In this new way of shopping I’ve become “Mam” for the supermarket guy, and behan (sister) or just Mayuri for my fruit and veggie vendor. Do I miss walking down the aisles of the supermarket and the full array of colors at the local market? Yes I do, but till that is not possible, might as well enjoy this new form of WhatsApp Shopping. And yes food ordering too is through WhatsApp!
What is a Crisp?
Now that I’ve got my shopping experience out of the way lets get to know what a crisp is. Generally crisp means hard but breakable, or firm and fresh where food is concerned. Where desserts are concerned the term ‘crisp’ refers to a fruit or fruits baked with a crumble topping. The topping made of flour, butter and sugar is mixed to a crumbly mixture and sprinkled over the fruit to be baked.
A crumble and crisp are just so similar and many times the words are interchanged. Some say that a crumble topping may have clumps while the topping of a crisp is evenly distributed over the fruit to be baked.
With cobblers, mainly a more doughy topping is used more like a shortcrust or flaky pastry type and instead of layering it neatly like we would for a pie, its place on the fruit to be baked in lumps. To make it more prettier, the dough is cut into cute circles and placed on the fruit.
How I decided to make Nectarine Blueberry Crisp?
During the month of January, I started to slowly wind up my Bangalore Home Kitchen. I had a small amount of Nigella Seeds left and decided to make Nigella Crackers. Instead of posting the recipe in Jan, I kept the recipe in my file and the mistake I made is that I did not download my photos from my iPhone. You know how it is, today, tomorrow, later! When I got back to Mombasa, Vidya announced that we taking a break so Nigella Crackers photo was left unattended on my iPhone. When I challenge revived this month I tried to download the photos and I just couldn’t. Some photos got downloaded onto my computer but some didn’t at all. I cleared my iPhone to create more memory, nothing. My daughter reckons that maybe a virus got to my phone. Don’t know. So along with a few recipe photos I lost my ‘Mumbai as a tourist photos’ too. That whole day felt miserable, learnt a hard lesson and then had to think…skip the challenge or challenge myself.
My fruit and veggie vendor messaged that nectarines and blueberries are available. So I asked the price and ordered them. Both fruits slightly expensive as the nectarines are from Spain and Blueberries are now grown locally but on a small scale. With these two beauties at hand a dessert idea was born – Nectarine and Blueberry Crisp.
Nectarine and Blueberry Crisp
Crisp is a very common dessert prepared during summer as berries and stone fruits are available and in winter with pears and apples. Crisp is one of the easiest desserts to make and ever so delicious. Years ago, I think around 19th Century crisp was generally made with apples only. Crisp can be served warm on its own as its pretty juicy, with whipped cream or some ice-cream.
Can you serve A crisp as a party dessert?
Whenever I want to serve a crisp to my guests I keep the fruit ready in the baking dish and keep the topping ready separately. Just before dinner time preheat the oven, sprinkle the topping and put the crisp for baking. By the time dinner is over, the dessert is ready to be served. For a larger crowd I prefer to bake it in a big baking dish. However, this time round as I don’t have any guests I decided to bake in individual ramekin.
Leftovers??
Generally, if baked in individual portions, then gets used up. However, if baked in a big dish, a bit may get leftover. I store the leftover in the fridge and no the topping does not remain crisp as the fruit juices will make it soggy. Nevertheless, I use it up next day as breakfast topped with plain yogurt.
Can you make the Crisp with only one fruit?
Yes you can – use nectarines, peaches, apples, pears, mango, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries, plums, apricots, etc on their own or a combination of any of these. Use either two, three or four fruit combinations.
Ingredients required for Nectarine and Blueberry Crisp
- Nectarines – ripe ones
- Blueberries – or any berries of your choice
- Brown Sugar – to add to the fruit and for the topping
- Oats – For the topping, I used quick oats, but you can use rolled oats.
- Flour – for the topping and to add a bit with the fruit. Usually plain flour is used but I used wheat flour.
- Cinnamon Powder – to add to the fruit
- Butter – cold butter cut into small pieces for the topping
- Nuts – an optional ingredient but if used, adds an extra crunch to the topping. I used walnuts but you can use any nuts of your choice.
- Ice cream or Whipped Cream – to serve on top. Again an optional ingredient as warm crisp on its own too tastes very delicious.
Dietary Tips:
- For a vegan friendly Nectarine and Blueberry Crisp replace butter with coconut oil, vegan butter or any oil of your choice. Serve it on its own, or whipped coconut cream or a vegan friendly ice cream.
- Vegetarian friendly
- Egg free
- Gelatin free
- For a gluten free crisp replace the plain or wheat flour with oat flour
NECTARINE AND BLUEBERRY CRISP
Ingredients
For The Topping:
- 1 tbsp wheat flour
- ⅓ cup oats
- 1 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
For the Fruit Layer:
- 2 cups chopped nectarine (about 3 whole ones)
- ½ cup blueberries
- 1 tbsp wheat flour
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- ¼ tsp cinnamon powder
- 2 tbsp water
- extra butter for greasing
For Serving:
- some vanilla ice cream or whipped fresh cream
Instructions
Preparation of the Topping:
- First, preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Mix flour, oats and sugar in a mixing bowl.
- Add the cold chopped butter. Rub it into the mixture using your fingertips.
- Add chopped walnuts and mix.
Preparation of the Fruit Layer:
- Grease 4 ramekin bowls or any heatproof bowls with butter.
- Mix chopped nectarine and blueberries in a bowl.
- Sprinkle sugar, flour and cinnamon powder over the fruit. Mix it gently.
- Add water and mix.
- Divide the mixture between the 4 ramekins.
- Sprinkle the topping over each fruit layer.
- Bake the crisp for 30 minutes. The fruit will be all bubbly and the topping should become golden brown.
- Take the dessert out of the oven and serve warm topped with ice cream or whipped cream.
Notes
- Can bake in a baking tray which is 8" X 8".
- Use any fresh fruit of your choice.
- Can use frozen fruit. Let it thaw a bit before baking.
- For gluten free version replace the flour with oat flour.
- For a vegan friendly dessert, omit butter and use coconut oil, oil or a vegan friendly butter. Serve with a vegan friendly ice cream or whipped coconut.
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A little request:
If you do try this recipe then please either
- add a comment below,
- send a picture to my email mayuri.ajay.patel62@gmail.com
- tag me as #mayuri_jikoni on Instagram
- or tag me on Twitter as #Mayuri1962