Apricot Crisp

June 27, 2010 at 11:50 am · Filed under Best Way to Watch The Wire, Cooking, It Rained in Marfa Once, Marfa, Texas and tagged: Apricot Crisp

For those of you who do actually read my blog (mom), I’m sorry I’ve been so long between posts. I have a couple of good excuses, I think. First, I moved from one house into another, and it took a while for me to get my new kitchen in order. Second, it’s been freaking hot. And my kitchen, being on the west side of the house and with no shades over the very large windows, has been the hottest part of the house. It’ll be great in the winter, I’m sure, but right now I’m doing everything I can to avoid turning on the oven.

So, wah.

Finally, yesterday, there was a bit of a reprieve from the heat, and the kitchen felt great. On top of that, my colleague and neighbor invited me to pick some apricots from her tree, which apparently has not produced fruit in several years. She said she walked outside one day and suddenly realized the tree had beautiful apricots hanging heavy from the branches. Glenn and I picked about a pound in the rain (RAIN!) yesterday afternoon.

I told Glenn we’d be eating the apricot crisp for dessert, but I’m sorry (or not) to say it didn’t make it that far. By the time I finished it yesterday evening, we found ourselves eating apricot crisp for dinner with some yogurt on the side and a glass of wine while we sat in front of the television to finish season 5 of The Wire. What a great way to watch Jimmy McNulty and Marlo Stanfield go down (sorry, The Wire reference).

The nice thing about apricots is that you don’t need to peel them, and they are small enough to pull open with your fingers without having to use a knife. This crisp took about 15 minutes to prepare, and its sweet smell in the oven was hard to resist (evidenced by the fact that we couldn’t even hold it till dessert…that, and we simply have no willpower around here).

I told my neighbor I’d be making something delicious for her in return for allowing me to pick apricots from her tree. Well, um…that might have to wait till next weekend, because I’ve successfully both picked and eaten all of the apricots with a little help from Glenn and this guy…

Apricot Crisp (not changed one bit from smittenkitchen.com save for the fact that we ate it for dinner instead of breakfast)

Fruit Base
1 pound apricots
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon flour
Grated fresh nutmeg, a pinch

Crisp Topping
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons, 2 ounces) butter, melted
6 tablespoons turbinado or regular sugar (turbinado, also sold as Sugar in the Raw, gives an excellent crunch)
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (or a mixture of whole wheat and all-purpose flour)
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons sliced almonds

Prepare fruit: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pull apart apricots at their seam, remove pits, and tear them one more time into quarters, placing them in a small baking dish (one that holds two to three cups is ideal). Stir in sugar, flour and pinch of nutmeg.

Make topping: Melt butter and stir in sugar, then oats, then flour, salt and almonds until large clumps form. Sprinkle mixture over the fruit. Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes and serve warm.

As smittenkitchen advises, we ate this with vanilla yogurt on the side. It was absolutely perfect, though I’m sure ice cream or whipped cream would make it more of a dessert.

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