Almost (but not really) sick of desserts: Peach and Cherry Crisp

     The third (and final) dessert I was baking last Wednesday was a personal dish--not in the size, although I did make it much smaller, but more so in that I was headed home for about 4 days, but my kitchen had quite a few fresh fruits lying about.
     Now, whatever was I supposed to do with those?  Hmm...perhaps a delicious, healthy(er) fruit crisp!  Why yes, yes, that DOES sound delicious, doesn't it?

And so it was.

     I literally happened to just stumble upon this recipe whilst browsing either Tastespotting.com or Foodgawker.com (honestly can't remember at the moment) and was just tickled to find that A) it called for both of the fruits I had in excess, including the same type of cherry and B) when I halved the recipe, as I always do (this time because I knew I wasn't going to want a bunch of crisp sitting around along with 2 cakes) I discovered I had EXACTLY the right amount of oats called for in the recipe.

    What I'm getting at here, ladies and gentlemen, is that I had pretty much everything on hand--a rare and special treat at that point in time, since I have spent much of the last few weeks running around grocery stores looking for specialty items.

Pre-baking: Crisp is piled pretty high...

     Okay, this is not entirely true.  The original recipe is very health-conscious, and gluten free I believe, and therefore called for almond meal and almond extract.  Actually, this sounds entirely delicious, but, as I said, I'd already blown enough time and money in Kroger, and had two other baking missions for the day, so I chose to sub out with ordinary, boring all-purpose flour and Vanilla extract.  I'd like to try again with the originals sometime though, because I bet the almond flavoring would go really well with the fruit, and I'm always up for eating delicious AND healthy foods when the option is there!

Post baking: Some of the crisp soaked up the fruit juices & sunk down,
becoming irresistibly soft & gooey.  My fave.

     The original recipe was actually a little bit vague at certain points--for example, it calls for sliced peaches, but doesn't mention whether or not to peel off the skins first (I did).  It also calls for 1/4 + 1 Tbsp sugar, but in the instructions only mentions using 1 Tbsp of it in the fruit mixture...I went ahead and assumed that was a typing error and that all of the sugar was supposed to go in with the fruit.  It tasted delicious, though it didn't have the syrup-y juice that most crisps seem to have...seemed healthier that way though, and didn't really need anything more, so I was quite satisfied!  (Also should mention, in the pyrex dish I used, which is quite small, the crisp topping ended up being QUITE thick, and the first day a bit tough, but after it sat & soaked up the juices overnight it was delicious & soft and oh so edible afterwards...overall I'd have used a wee bit more butter though, as the proportions made it a wee bit dry.)

     I'm going to go ahead and just provide you all with a link here to the original recipe from I'll have what she's having and give you a general summary of my comments/tips for baking this dish below:

1. Don't have almond meal & extract? Substitute for all purpose flour & vanilla extract.
2. Add all the sugar in with the fruit, not just 1 Tbsp.
3. my crisp topping had some oats that were a bit dry, so I'd use more butter next time around to be sure everything had that crumbly, clumpy texture before baking.
4. Also, as a side-thought for the fruit filling, I ended up quartering a lot of my cherries, which probably gave me a bit more in the long run... all up to you though! I also peeled all of my peaches.

     That's it for now, and that may be the last dessert I make for a while to spare both my newly purchased jeans and the enamel on my teeth...

Unless, of course, I simply cannot help myself. ;)