Well. Where to start here . . . the other day I asked my DH if, when he visited Costco, would he please look for any summer fruit. I’m weary of apples and pears. I’m eager for plums to come in since I want to make that New York Times’ #1 requested recipe – a Purple Plum Torte. But plums certainly aren’t in season yet. When he returned he had a big tray of peaches. As hard as rocks, but about 13 or 14 of them. Anxious as he was, he ate one the next day. It was not sweet at all and he could hardly get it down. He thought we’d end up with the entire tray of unripe fruit. But I just let that box sit out on the kitchen counter, the base cradling each individual peach, for about 4 days or so. And sure enough, all the peaches ripened beautifully. And, as you know with such things, every single one of them ripened the same day. So, I needed to do something with them. We ate a couple, a gave two of them to a friend, but I still had about 9 of them. I used 8 (just a little over 3 pounds) for this dessert.
Over the years I’ve been somewhat unsuccessful with peach cobblers or crisps. I’m finicky when it comes to what I like. One day a few weeks ago we visited a new restaurant in our town and after a nice dinner, we ordered their fruit crisp. My usual question to the waiter is: “Is is really sweet?” Usually they say yes, or fairly so, or something similar, but I try it anyway. And am usually disappointed because most restaurants load them up with too much sugar for my palette. Last summer I recall that I made a peach cobbler – I think it was The Pioneer Woman’s version with a delicious maple syrup enhanced whipped cream. It was good, but still didn’t meet with my dream of a perfect peach crisp.
You see, I like a really crispy crust. What I really want is my mother’s Crisp Apple Pudding but made with peaches. I’ve tried using that recipe, but because peaches have so much fluid in them, it always ends up soggy and never crispy enough. The flour-based topping in that recipe just ends up like gum on top of the peaches. Sigh.
Therefore, this time around, I was on a detective mission. First I went to my resource – Eat Your Books, that website where I have all my cookbooks listed and I just put in my search request and it tells me which cookbooks I own contain a recipe. Well, the list was long – I think there were about 35 versions of Peach Crisp including a few in my barbecue cookbooks, books I’d probably not have looked in for peach recipes! Pulling cookbooks off the shelves, I looked at them. Eliminated all of them made with oatmeal. Not my thing. Didn’t want to mix peaches and blueberries or rhubarb, although there were plenty of those too. America’s Test Kitchen had more than one recipe, but I went to my bookshelf and pulled off the TV Show cookbook I have and read the blurb. The test kitchen chefs had determined a variety of different things about peach crisp – that using all brown sugar was overpowering. Using all white sugar lacked character. So they used half and half. That keeping the topping chilled until just before sprinkling it on top helped make the topping crunchy. That sounded good to me. And although they noted that most peach crisps gave off a lot of watery juice, they preferred the juice without adding cornstarch or flour to the peaches.
Their combination involved pulsing flour, sugar, spices and butter in the food processor (briefly), then adding in some nuts (they used pecans, I wanted walnuts). They felt that combination made the best chemistry for a crisp top. And they added a small amount of sugar to the peaches, but also some lemon zest and lemon juice (that was different). All sounded good on paper. So I put it to the test. It was very easy to make. Just be sure to peel the fruit – I didn’t, a mistake – when baked the peel is kind of stringy, unappetizing and hard to cut, even though the peaches were almost fuzz-less.
I did have to make this in a larger baking dish – they suggested a 9-inch pie plate. Well, there was no way it would fit! Three pounds of fruit nearly overflowed the pie plate without the topping. And since I doubled the topping, I really did need a bigger dish. But, it was fantastic. I think I may start a new thing here on my blog – at the bottom of each posting, before the pdfs and the recipe, I’m going to tell you in straight talk what I liked and didn’t like about it. So here goes:
What I liked: it had the perfect balance of sweet and tart for me! The contrast of the tart fruit (because it had lemon juice on it, and very little sugar) and the topping (which was sweet with the brown and white sugar combo) was delicious. The chewy nuts added a great texture boost to me. I pulsed them a bit too long (a caution) so they were smaller than expected. Loved the crunchy topping – I actually doubled the topping and I should have baked it a little longer at the higher temp because of that since the center didn’t quite get crunchy enough, which was my fault. Next time I’ll make sure about that.
What I didn’t like: the next day, after being refrigerated, the topping was soggy. All the juice was absorbed into the topping. Alas, there’s not much to be done about that. But it tasted great for breakfast with a bit of milk and fat-free half and half poured over the top). When I served it for dessert the first night, there was a lot of juice in the baking dish – it seemed like too much, but it tasted wonderful – syrupy and tart with the lemon juice. If you really don’t like the juiciness, add about a tablespoon or so of flour or cornstarch to the raw peaches. Maybe the best advice is to make this and eat it all up the first day!
Peach Crisp
Recipe By: From The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook
Serving Size: 6
Serving Ideas: Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
NOTES: A 9-inch square pan may work better for this (higher sides). According to the headnotes on this recipe, chilling the topping is crucial – helps make it more crispy. And the combination of brown and white sugar was deduced after much trial and error in the Test Kitchen.
TOPPING:
6 tablespoons unbleached flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg — use freshly ground
1/4 teaspoon table salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter — cut in 1/2″ pieces
3/4 cup walnuts — coarsely chopped, or pecans
FILLING:
3 pounds peaches — 6-8 medium, peeled, pitted, 1/2 inch slices
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1. TOPPING: Pulse flour, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a food processor until combined. Sprinkle the butter pieces over the top and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 15 pulses. Add nuts and pulse until mixture clumps together and resembles wet sand, about 5 pulses; do not overmix. Transfer mixture to a bowl and chill while preparing filling, at least 15 minutes.
2. FILLING: Adjust oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat oven to 375°. Combine the peaches, sugar, salt and juice in a large bowl and toss gently to combine. Transfer the peach mixture to a 9-inch glass pie plate (I had to use a larger size – about 10-inch and with higher sides than suggested). Place pie on a cookie sheet and sprinkle topping all over the peaches.
3. Bake crisp on the cookie sheet for 40 minutes. Increase oven temp to 400° and continue baking another 5 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and bubbling. Serve warm, if possible. Have leftovers? Serve it for breakfast with some drizzled cream or half and half on top.
Per Serving: 368 Calories; 19g Fat (43.0% calories from fat); 6g Protein; 50g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 26mg Cholesterol; 101mg Sodium.
A year ago: GF Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
Two years ago: Celery, Date, Walnut and Pecorino Salad
Four years ago: Apricot Ice Cream
Erika
said on June 23rd, 2011:
The last time I bought a large quantity of peaches I made a grievous error when dealing with them. I decided to make jam, only I didn’t wait for the peaches to ripen. I used them hard, and ended up dumping 12 pints of peach jam down the drain because it tasted so awful. I’ve avoided the crates of peaches the last two summers because of this!
Thank you Carolyn for sharing this- now I know! Buy the peaches, but be patient, and they will all ripen at once and THEN I can make jam. And this crisp- it sounds delightful!
I’ve made that same mistake before, too. . . .Carolyn t
Joan
said on June 30th, 2011:
Loved surfing your blog. Funny story how I came upon it: Was on my way home and happened to be behind a Yellow Cream-colored car , which began my reminiscing and craving for my grandmother’s Lemon Velvet Ice Cream. So when I arrived home I googled ‘Lemon Velvet Ice Cream’ and happened upon your web-site! Just as in the dangers of ‘shopping while your hungry’, surfing through your web site, I have found delicious recipe after delicious recipe! I am a teacher, so I will enjoy my summers trying out the Lemon Velvet Ice Cream, the Spicy Nuts and the Peach Crisp! I also teach elementary art and was fascinated in your art work section with comments. Loved your water colors! Thank you for inspiring me.
What a fun story, Joan. Is this lemon velvet ice cream like your grandmother’s? Thanks for the compliment about my art. I need to get back to it! . . . carolyn t
Lorna Anderson
said on August 10th, 2025:
Not what I am looking for. A few years ago I made a peach dessert and can’t find it again.
For me, sometimes it’s the flavors of my childhood, things my mother cooked, that weren’t recipes, and didn’t realize I wanted them until long after she was gone. For crisps and cobblers, people have expectations of anything from oatmeal, to soggy, to crisp. Hope you find the one you’re searching for . . . carolyn t