Spring is ending, summer is beginning, and fruit is everywhere.
This lovely book, from the publisher Ryland Peters & Small way back in 2006, takes two key components we all love and perhaps actually need: fruit and dough. Or fruit and crust. In combinations that are classic and often a bit confusing. Here you’ll learn about cobblers, slumps, pandowdies, crumbles, berries and crisps. The differences? Substantial. And I invite you to Page 6, a one page introduction that happily gives you the inside scoop on each of these dessert types.
Ah, “scoop” is the operative word. These desserts are prepared in a pan, dough on the bottom or top or in between. Hot out of the oven or cooled the next day, these desserts beckon you to pick up a spoon and dish yourself “summer on a plate.” Oh, you may need another spoon or two: for the ice cream or the whipped cream. Or both.
What awaits you here? Consider:
Blackberry Cobbler
Butterscotch Sauce [for anything that comes to mind]
Caramel Apple Crisp
Caramelized Pear and Bourbon Crumble
Classic Blackberry and Apple Crumble
Molasses Banana Cobbler
Rhubarb and Orange Crumble
Apricot and Almond Slump
Plum and Hazelnut Pandowdy
Pineapple Rum Betty
Summer Berry Cobbler
Toffee Banana Cobbler
The recipes here are, of course, delicious. Author Maxine Clark is a leading British food writer, and you’ll find British inspired ideas here, like that Toffee Banana Cobbler.
All these recipes are actually templates. Go to your local farmers’ market, poke around, find the best and the freshest. Go home and you will surely find some concept that begs your attention. Oh, besides the fruit, you might want to buy some cream too. Whipped cream and fruit and crust. What more can you ask for.