Saturday, August 27, 2011

The Pioneer Woman's rasberry crisp


It's about time I posted something sweet, isn't it?

Truth be told, I haven't been baking much recently. Part of it is being a little busy; part of it's the fact that two people can't (or shouldn't) eat a whole batch of cookies, or even half.

There's also our upcoming trip to Hawaii. Oh, did I neglect to mention that? Well, five weeks from today we are jetting to Maui. You know of my deep love of Kauai. Well, Maui isn't too shabby either.

Anyhow, with the impending prospect of lolling around on a beach every day for a week wearing little clothing, I've pushed desserts to the back of my mind. Not totally off my plate, though, as evidenced by the raspberry crisp I made the other day.

This was my first occasion using a Pioneer Woman's recipe. I don't look at her site too much--I find it a bit overwhelming--although I enjoy her writing style and think her photographs are off the hook. But when I Googled "raspberry crisp," her recipe popped up.

I ended up buying too many raspberries and using them all--probably close to 4 cups as opposed to the 2 1/2 her recipe calls for. But frankly, my pie plate would have been pretty skimpy without those additional berries. However, I should have increased the cornstarch--the crisp ended up a tad on the watery side.

Overall, a success, though. And you can't beat that color...


And the topping was, well, downright crisp.


Would I say this was the crisp recipe to beat all crisp recipes? No. Hands down, my favorite is still Baking Illustrated's apple crisp, which I have adapted to all kinds of fruit, including this blackberry apricot crisp.  I'm fairly sure that's a little piece of heaven. Or, for those of us not religiously inclined, a little piece of Hawaii, my version of eternal happiness.

10 comments:

  1. Looks great! I do love me some crisp. And you're right, you can't argue with that color.

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  2. I'm just going berserk making crisps and crumbles this summer. I haven't made one with raspberries, though, and I will now, if only for the color alone. And I've been getting around the 'shouldn't be even thinking about dessert' dilemma by eating my crumbles for breakfast ;)
    I agree with you about the Pioneer Woman's site, way too overwhelming.

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  3. I LOVE that pie plate!
    The color of that crisp just jumps out at you and looks like summer.

    I am now going to the kitchen to attempt to make a crumble with plums from our tree.....we'll see if it works.

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  4. camille: Who doesn't love a good crisp?!

    Sue: I agree, a crumble/crisp can definitely double as breakfast!

    tamilyn: nice to see you! Hope you are having a great summer!

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  5. oooh, have lots of fun in Hawaii!! I wish one day I could say I bought too many raspberries, but they are so expensive over here, the only time I have a decent amount to cook with is when I use frozen berries. I do agree, the colour is heavenly, or should that be Hawaii-ly?

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  6. Oh yum!That looks delicious! It also looks exactly like a crumble to me. What's the difference please? (I'm British - to me a crisp is something made of potatoes ;-) )

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  7. shaz: Well, they're expensive here too, just a little less so in the summertime. I find that for things like this, frozen berries work perfectly well.

    bevchen: Thanks for visiting! The difference between a crumble and a crisp seems to be some source of debate. In my mind, a crisp tends to have smaller bits, more like a granola-type topping, and crumbles have bigger chunks. I actually prefer crumbles.

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  8. i don't mind a watery crisp. yes, with time, the crunchy topping becomes less crunchy and more soggy, but the simple truth is that any crisp in my house never lasts long enough for that to happen. :)

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  9. Hey, it's fruit. It's GOOD for you. ;)

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  10. grace: Indeed.

    CJ: My reasoning exactly...

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