Peach Crisp
There are many baked desserts using peaches, like peach pie and cobbler, but peach crisp is by far the easiest one to make. Unlike pie, there's no dough to roll out, and unlike cobbler, the topping comes together in minutes with just a few pantry staples. The crisp topping is also very flexible. If you don't want to use oats, you can substitute with another grain or flour. If you don't like coconut, you can swap it for any other nut, or skip it entirely. This is a great dessert for beginners because there's very little that can go wrong, and it still looks and tastes impressive straight out of the oven.
I used peaches here, but you can easily swap in other fruits depending on what's in season. Berries, apricots, plums, and nectarines all work beautifully, and combinations like peach, apricot, and blueberry are especially good together. Stone fruit season is short, so this is a great recipe to keep in your back pocket from late spring through early fall.
I used yellow peaches this time. Yellow peaches have a more pronounced, tangy sweetness that holds up well against sugar, butter, and spices, and they tend to keep their shape better during baking compared to white peaches, which are more delicate and can turn mushy in the oven. To peel them easily, score a small cross at the bottom of each peach and blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then transfer immediately to ice water. Peel starting from the scored tip and the skin comes right off. Slice the peaches into ½ to 1 inch chunks.
Toss the peaches with lemon juice, granulated sugar, and flour. The lemon juice does a few important things: it brightens the overall flavor and keeps the filling from tasting flat or one dimensional, it adds a touch of acidity that makes the fruit taste more vibrant, and it helps slow browning on the cut peaches if there's any wait time before baking. For the thickener, flour is a great everyday choice because it's forgiving and gives a slightly soft, rustic set to the filling without the glossy or gelatinous texture you'd get from cornstarch or tapioca starch. If you want a cleaner, glossier finish to the juices, cornstarch works well too. The peaches I used were slightly underripe and on the tart side, but if your peaches are very ripe and sweet, you can dial back the sugar and flour a little.
For the topping, the most important thing is to use cold butter. Cut it into the dry ingredients (oats, flour, sugar, and any spices or coconut you're adding) until the mixture forms coarse, crumbly clumps. Those cold butter clumps are what give you a crisp, sandy topping rather than a dense or mushy one. Spread the topping evenly over the peach filling and bake at 350°F until the top is deep golden and the fruit juices are visibly bubbling around the edges. That bubbling is your cue that the filling has thickened and the peaches are fully cooked through.
Serve the crisp warm, ideally with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting over the top. The contrast between the cold, creamy ice cream and the warm, jammy peaches is the whole point. Leftovers keep well in the fridge for up to a week and reheat beautifully in the oven or microwave. Stone fruit season doesn't last long, so make this while the peaches are at their best.
Peach Crisp
Makes about 1 pint
Prep time 30 min
Total 1 hour 15 minutes
Serving 6-8
Ingredients
Filling
3 lb peaches (about 5-6 medium sized peaches)
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cardamom
Topping
113g butter (1 stick)
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup all purpose flour
½ cup oats
1 tsp salt
½ cup shaved coconut
Vanilla Ice cream
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 375˚F.
If you are going to peel the peaches, bring a pot of water to a boil. Score the tip end of each peach. Blanch for a minute, then transfer them to an ice water bath. Cool for a couple of minutes or until cool to the touch. Using a paring knife, remove the skin. Slice the peaches to about ½ inch thickness.
Place the sliced peaches into a large bowl. Add the lemon juice, sugar, flour, and cardamom. Toss to coat evenly. Set aside.
Make the crisp topping. In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, and butter. Using a bowl scraper, pastry cutter, fork, or your fingertips, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture comes together in pea sized clumps. Fold in the shaved coconut.
In a 9" cast iron pan, spread the peach mixture evenly. Sprinkle the topping over the peaches to cover. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the topping is browned and the fruit juices are bubbling around the edges.
Serve warm, topped with vanilla ice cream if desired.