Recipe 8 from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman
WW Notes: If you divide this into 3 cup servings you can indulge for 18 points. If you sub out for a sugar substitute you can drop it to 14 points….but I say don’t use a sugar substitute! Haha…if there’s only a 4 point difference enjoy the indulgence!
We’re back! I’m really excited to have dusted off my cookbook and start back into working through it one recipe at a time.
The last time I made one of these recipes was in 2014. That’s 3 years ago and when I was still dating my husband. A LOT of life has happened since then so….yikes…just yikes.
I will continue to call these posts the “resolution recipe” series because at one point it was my new year’s resolution to do this in 2 years. Since it’s obviously already been 2 years, let’s just say progress is progress. I’ll be thrilled to finish this cookbook one day :)
You’ll have to go back to my first post about this series to get the whole story.
So here we go…
In this recipe, Deb Perelman, says, “If you’re only eating baked fruit crisps for dessert, you’re totally missing out.” and I would have to agree! I never even thought about doing a crisp for a breakfast topping over yogurt or maybe even oatmeal.
Sadly, while this was a genius idea to do for breakfast, it was so yummy it didn’t exactly make it to breakfast time. AAAANNNNDDD…I forgot the yogurt at the store that the recipe calls for so it couldn’t have been for breakfast anyways. *sigh* Another time. This recipe was super delicious and worth adding to the seasonal rotation when apricots are in season.
I was shocked to find apricots at all, and they were probably not very good (I’m not a big fan of them so I wouldn’t know what good ones taste like) and they were pretty pricey at $4.99 a pound. At Walmart, mind you. Expensive.
My husband likes pretty much any fruit I put in front of him so I figured even if I don’t like it then he’ll polish it off for me and I won’t have to worry about it going to waste.
They are pretty though, aren’t they? It was a nice fally kind of activity for me to be making a crips of any kind after I had gotten my fall decorations up.
I think my favorite part of the recipe is how fast it took to put it together and have it in the oven. If you’re looking for an easy dessert for a small crowd, or a fun switch up to your normal breakfast bakes, this won’t disappoint. The most time consuming part of the recipe was just cutting up the apricots.
The topping will be done in a pot which I thought was interesting. I think I usually melt the butter in a pyrex measuring glass then pour it into the oat/sugar mixture. This made sense and made it easy to stir in all the fun stuff.
And it also made sense to use a pot and since I just got new pots and pans (YIPPEEE!) I was all for giving them a go because who doesn’t like to use new pots and pans all the time when they first arrive from Amazon!
Below you’ll see it pre oven assembled and then post oven baked. I did mine in a round pyrex bowl and it was a prefect size. I believe it was about 9 inches diameter. She says to use a 1 quart gratin dish so if you actually have one of those, you’ll be a little closer to her exact directions.
And then of course….the close up can’t be missed either! My husband asked that I pour some of my half and half over the top of his which I thought was a pretty good idea to give it a little bit of a breakfasty feel. Deb suggests and photographs hers over yogurt and I bet it was amazing.
I would really like to do this again if we have company over who needs breakfast. I feel like I might impress my house guests if I did offer it :) My sister-in-law may come out for the holidays so I’ll have to let you know how she enjoys it if she stays with us.
Recipe is posted below! Hope you give this a try and enjoy. Deb mentions trying this with other pitted fruit and I agree that plums or peaches would be a really great substitute if you were out of season or couldn’t find apricots.
Happy baking all!
Apricot Breakfast Crips
INGREDIENTS
FRUIT
- 1 lb apricots
- 2 Tbs sugar (granulated or natural turbinado)
- 1 Tbs all-purpose flour
- Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (I used my jar and it worked out fine :)
TOPPING
- 4 Tbs Butter
- 1/3 cup sugar (granulated or natural turbinado)
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- good pinch of salt
- 2 Tbs sliced or chopped almonds
- Yogurt of your choice, to serve (or ice cream would be amazing too if you want to do this for a dessert!)
INSTRUCTIONS
PREPARE FRUIT
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Quarter apricots after removing the pit. Place fruit in a small baking dish. Stir in sugar, flour, and a pinch of nutmeg.
MAKE TOPPING
Melt the butter in a small saucepan, and stir in first the sugar, then the oats, then the flour, and finally the salt and almonds, until large clumps form. Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit. Bake for about 30 minutes. Eat warm or chilled, with a scoop of your favorite yogurt.
DEB’S NOTE: try with peaches, plums (combined is good she says) or apples and pears in the fall. If using apples and pears, you’ll cut the fruit into smaller chunks instead of quarters and bake for 40-45 min instead of 30. You’ll also want to cover the top with foil so it doesn’t burn with that longer cooking time.
The Novice Life 