Peach Crisp

Welcome to my new kitchen! I believe it's now the sixth kitchen I've used since I began this blog, not counting guest kitchens. But here's hoping it's the last for a while. It's a good kitchen. You'll notice the nice light and view from the window. Also the larger new refrigerator.

And my new gas stove and the oven I brought from our last apartment. Yes, that's a washing machine under the stove. Welcome to European apartment living.

Just for contrast, here's the kitchen as we got it. No appliances, but at least we got the counters and cabinets. Often you don't even get that here.

So if I compare and contrast with my last kitchen, it's easy: this one is bigger and has more cabinet space. But it has almost no counter space (and no room for my beloved butcher block unit, which is now serving as a buffet in the living room) and only two drawers. We have plans and dreams for improving the kitchen, but first we have to recover from the financial shock of buying an apartment at Parisian prices...

But maybe you're here for the recipe. It's definitely worth making. It's called "peach crisp", but what I made was neither purely peach, nor did I find it to be a crisp per se. But it was delicious and easy.

I had planned to buy a lot of peaches, honest! But I was at the market and the apricots and cherries, which are more in season than peaches, were calling out to me. So I decided to make an "early summer fruit" crisp. There are some peaches there under the other fruit.

Now to the crisp part. Maybe it's the egg or the flour/butter ratio, but this is not the streusel-y crisp topping I'm used to. Maida said it would be "crumbly", but even after I added more flour and some oatmeal, it was still more like dough. No matter: I just broke it up and crumbled it over the fruit.

And here's the final product. To me it's more like a cobbler than a crisp (this is my go-to crisp recipe), but that doesn't stop it from tasting great. We were six at dinner, and there was nothing left at the end.

So whether you're in a old kitchen or a new one, whether you have peaches or apricots or plums or whatever, you should make this for a great ending to a good dinner. Here's the recipe.

Peach Crisp

3 lbs. peaches (or mixed fruit of your choice), peeled and quartered/thick-sliced

1-1/2 T. lemon juice

1 t. vanilla

1 c. (4 oz.) sifted flour (some whole wheat is nice here)

3/4 c. (5 oz.) sugar

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. almond extract

1 egg

6 T. (3 oz.) melted butter (consider browning it)

Heat the oven to 400. Butter a 2-quart baking dish. Put the fruit in the baking dish; sprinkle it with the lemon juice and vanilla and stir. In a medium mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the almond extract, egg, and butter and stir well with a fork. It should be crumbly, but if it's not, you can still proceed without any problems. Sprinkle/crumble the topping over the fruit. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the topping is golden and the fruit is bubbling. Serve warm with ice cream.