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I love cobblers, crisps, and crumbles. For some reason, I seem to have fallen into using blackberries for cobbler, apples for crisps, and stone fruit for crumbles. I will probably break out of this pattern at some point but it does seem to work quite well. This stone fruit crumble is one of my absolute favorites. I make it with peaches, nectarines, and plums whenever they are in season. Sometimes I mix in a few cherries too. It’s a pretty versatile recipe so you can have fun mixing it up a bit. You can also assemble it in advance which makes it great for entertaining.
On Crumbles
To me, crisps and crumbles are essentially the same. I’ve heard it said that crumbles are denser and don’t contain oats but I’ve seen many recipes that contain them (including this one). I think two things set this crumble apart from the many other crisps and crumbles I’ve made. The first is that you brown the butter. I love browning butter – it can really transform a recipe and add great richness and complexity. Try these brown butter rice krispy treats from Smitten Kitchen for a great case study in how browning butter can transform a recipe. The second aspect of this recipe that I really like is the sugar mix – it uses three different sugars in the crumble mixture – regular, turbinado, and brown sugar. I think this adds to the texture and complexity.
Stone Fruit Crumble
- Yield: 6-8 servings 1x
Description
This crumble recipe is adopted from Food and Wine Magazine. It’s attributed to chef Kierin Baldwin. Serve it with with vanilla ice cream.
Ingredients
Fruit Mixture
- 2 lbs ripe stone fruit, pitted and sliced (approx. ¼ inch)
- ⅓ cup sugar
- Juice of 1 large lemon
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
Crumble
- 1 cup flour
- ½ cup quick or instant oats (I like Trader Joe’s quick oats)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup turbinado sugar
- 2 tbsp dark brown sugar
- 1 stick butter
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Butter the inside of a large shallow baking dish
- Put the peach slices in a large mixing bowl and add the sugar and lemon juice. Stir until peaches are coated in sugar and lemon juice. Cover the peaches with plastic wrap and let them sit for 30 minutes. This allows the sugar to dissolve and the peaches to release some of their juices.
- Strain the peaches in a colander set over a small sauce pan to collect their juices. Return the drained peaches to their bowl. Add ¼ cup water and the cornstarch to the peach juice. Cook the mixture over medium heat and allow it to come to a simmer. Once simmering, whisk it constantly until smooth and thick (approx 2 minutes). Remove from heat and pour over peaches.
- Transfer peach mixture to greased baking dish.
- Put the flour, quick oats, and 3 sugars in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and cinnamon. Whisk to combine. Place butter in small saucepan and melt over low to medium heat. Brown the butter, stirring often until it turns a golden brown and develops a nutty smell (approx 8 minutes). If you are new to browning butter see this Serious Eats post on butter browning techniques. Once the butter is browned, remove from heat and poor into flour out mixture. Stir the mixture to combined.
- Pour crumble mixture over crisp and bake for 1 hour. Remove crumble from oven and let sit for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Notes
You can assemble the crumble ahead of time and pop it in the oven about an hour and twenty minutes before you want to serve it. You can also bake it in advance. Sometimes I make it the night before we have company. Just refrigerate it and then reheat when ready to serve.
