Last weekend, I had planned to pick up my boy from the train station, eat a quick dinner at home, and then drive up to New Haven. My parents had planned to be out visiting my brother and his wife and their newborn (baby niece!!!!), so dinner was going to be small and uneventful. That is, until their original plans for the day changed and they decided to come visit here instead- along with my grandma, uncle, and two family friends and their 2 year old.
All of a sudden there were 10.7 people to feed. I think that’s probably the only way to quantify 10 adults, a 3-week old, and a 1.8 year old. 10.7 people whom I absolutely love, but just very different from each of our original plans. My mom wanted to pick up something special for dessert (are we related?) so I offered instead to bake something. She was being indecisive so I hit the interwebs and found this recipe. It caught my eye for three reasons. First off, it’s vegan, so no dairy present for my lactose intolerance to pick a fight with. Second, it’s fruit-based, which is nice and refreshing on a super hot day when to be honest, I just don’t want to eat something warm and chocolatey. And yes- that probably is the ONLY time I have ever said that. The third point of attraction was how easy it is to make. All the ingredients are things you would generally have on hand; I only had to run out and pick up some fresh fruit. Also, it’s super adaptable- feel free to experiment with fruit ratios (throw ALL the fruit in the bowl) or with any combination of fruits!
I doubled the recipe to suit the large crowd and made two 9 inch square crumbles. It was delicious with vanilla ice cream if you want to take the vegan part out of it. Or whipped cream. It’s delicious on its own though, hot or cold! Also, leftovers=ideal breakfast. It’s totally fruit. Plus, there’s oats in it- give me one good reason why the presence of fruit and oats does not qualify this as a perfect breakfast food.
Summer Berry Crumble adapted from Joy the Baker
makes enough to fill a 9×9 pan, or 6 individual ramekins
For the fruit part
1 1/2 cups blueberries
1 1/2 cups raspberries
4 peaches, cut into chunks
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cloves
1/4 cup maple syrup
For the topping
1 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
2 Tbsp canola or vegetable oil
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp water
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Combine all the ingredients for the fruit part in a bowl and toss until the fruit is generally coated. Set it aside for a moment while you put together the topping.
In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients for the topping (oats, flour, salt, and spices.) In yet another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (the oil, maple syrup, vanilla, and water.) Add the wet to the dry ingredients and blend together using a fork, making sure all the dry ingredients get nice and moist (embrace the word).
Add about half a cup of the topping to the fruit and mix them together. Put the fruit into a 9×9″ pan and then scoop and pat down the rest of the topping onto it. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until it’s bubbling and completely irresistible. Enjoy!
Take home message- sometimes, plans change. And when they do, make this berry crumble! I suppose this isn’t a universal solution. If you planned to see a movie with a friend and then they called to suggest going to the beach instead, your first thought shouldn’t be to make this. It should be sunscreen. Overall, it ended up being a lovely evening- I got to see my grandma meet her great-grandchild for the first time, watch a ~2 year old conquer multiple stairs on his own, and eat delicious food with beautiful people, which is generally my everyday goal in life.