I have been adding herbs and spices to desserts for years. Macerated strawberries with black pepper and rosemary? Done it. Apple strudel with thyme? All over it. Peach cobbler with anise seed, blueberries and ginger whipped cream? Done and done. The strange thing is that I rarely make desserts with fruit that is unadorned. I recently asked myself why I can’t seem to let the pure fruit stand alone. My answer was nothing earth shattering, I simply like to play with flavor.
Ever since moving to Petaluma I have experienced wave, after wave of nostalgia. Petaluma is a small agricultural community in the western part of the United States. I am surrounded by pastures full of cows and horses. There is a strong movement to keep big box stores out of the community, although a few have slipped through, and mom and pop shops line the streets. The Starbucks on Petaluma Boulevard is filled with old farmers as often as hipsters and soccer moms. Taking a trip to an antique store here is like a trip into my grandmothers china cabinet with shelves full of Blue Willow, Dusty Rose not to mention the fact that I think every shop in the area seems to have her entire kitchen and collection of knick-knacks on sale. Around every corner it seems, there is something that reminds me of my grandparents and their rural west coast town.
My grandparents had a beautiful grey/blue farmhouse that sat underneath the shade of a giant oak tree and overlooked the orchard, pastures and kitchen garden. My grandmother grew her own berries and other fruits and made the most marvelous fruit pies with them. Her way with fruit was legendary and always a source of anticipation and excitement on the long road from our home in Washington to hers in Oregon. She never felt the pull of her spice cabinet, but she certainly had a way with fruit and I have decided to give her ways a try.
Well, almost, my grandmother never had agave nectar in her cupboard.
I chose to sweeten my fruit with agave simply because it isn’t intrusive on the fruits flavor like honey and I think it helps preserve the pure flavor of the fruit. The flavor of the crisp is very tangy, sweet, a little earthy and goes great with a good Rioja.
Who knows, maybe, just maybe with forty or fifty years of practice and I’ll be as good as my grandmother.
Enjoy!
The Fruit
5-6 cups Blueberries
3 Apricots, sliced in half with the stone removed
A hefty drizzle of Pure Agave Nectar (according to your sweet tooth, apricot can be quite tart)
Sprinkle of Sea Salt
1 Recipe Topping
Preheat your oven to 325F.
Arrange your fruit in a baking dish or in 6 ramekins and sprinkle with a little bit of sea salt and drizzle lightly with agave nectar. Cover thickly with the topping and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the topping is golden and fruit bubbly. Serve warm or at room temp either as they are or with a dollop of fresh cream.
The Topping
2 1/2 cups Old Fashioned Oats (thick cut if possible)
1/2 cup Almonds, chopped finely
1/2 cup Pure Agave Nectar
1/4 cup Butter, melted
Sea Salt
Combine the ingredients together and mix until everything is coated with agave and butter.
**Once again, Phil was unable to take the photos so I pulled out the ol’ hilstamatic app for my iphone.
Yum! I do love cooked stone fruit.
Have never cooked blueberries though….. strange though it may seem. Might have to try that next.
That is such a beautiful recipe. My mouth is watering for it.
So do I Debbie. I’m lucky enough to be from an area of the United States where stone fruits thrive, so we can get some great fruit.
You should, they are wonderful. Their natural sweetness really intensifies and the juice is so delicious!
Thanks Bordeaux!
Maybe I need to buy twice the amount of blueberries that I need to cook with, as I eat them before they get anywhere near a heat source…lol. That way I might have a slight chance of actually cooking some.
Meant to say, I do like the quirky retro look to the photos. Which app are you using with your iphone please? I have the zoom app, but did not see this one.
Debbie, It it the hipstamatic app and I love, love, love it! It covers up the fact that I am not very good at photography. It is good for dishes like the crisp, but dishes with more or smaller ingredients get a little lost making me wish Phil wasn’t so busy at the moment.
I thought I invented the oats and almonds fruit crisp topping! I love the firm crunch in opposition to the soft fruit! Yum!
Donna, I think this must be a case of great minds thinking alike! I love it too. Yesterday I made plum crisps with walnut in the topping instead, it was fabulous.
Wow, your grandparent’s home must have been so wonderful. I like to play with flavor too. I’ll have to try apples with thyme and ginger whipped cream–yum.
Denise, It really was. I haven’t even mentioned the moss covered mini forest out back, it was so green lush with strategically placed purple flowers everywhere. My grandmother may have had the nasty habit of mowing down her roses with the riding lawnmower, but her gardens were gorgeous. I wish I had been older and more established when they moved away, I would have snapped up that house in a heartbeat. The fruit room alone is a cause for envy.