Easy Weekend Dessert

It’s the weekend!  It has been quite the week — I have felt one step behind on everything this week — new schedules that haven’t made it to my calendar means I have found myself missing meetings, arriving late to events, etc… 🙁 So today I am going to get all of my calendars synced up in the hopes that I won’t have so many fails in the week coming up.  Oh well, just trying my lousy best here.

But time to forget about that and reconnect with family.  Here in the midwest, we have just gathered up the last berries of the season.  So, I thought I would share one of our favorite go-to desserts for the weekend.  You can adjust this recipe to any fruits that you like.  Apples, pears, frozen blueberries or strawberries, this works well with whatever you have on hand.  I hope you enjoy!  Most importantly, find a half hour or so where you can all gather around this delicious dessert and talk about your week.

Ingredients:

1. Raspberries or any other fresh or frozen fruit on hand
2. Cinnamon
3. Nutmeg
4. Flour (or Corn Starch if Gluten Free)
5. Oats (quick oats or smaller cut oatmeal)
6. Brown Sugar
7. Little Sugar (only if fruit isn’t very sweet)
8. Butter -1 to 2 sticks
9. Lemon juice and lemon zest (optional)
10. Vanilla Ice Cream

Directions:

1. Simply put all your fruit in a bowl.  I added sliced apples to this bowl of raspberries because it will melt down in the oven.
2. Add a teaspoon of flour (or corn starch)to create a thicker sauce when cooked.
3. Also you can add a little cinnamon, nutmeg, and a squeeze of lemon and lemon zest to the fruit.  (I didn’t add cinnamon or nutmeg because I wanted the sweetness of the raspberry to come through -but when using apples, pears, and other fall fruits I usually add cinnamon and nutmeg).  If the fruit isn’t very sweet, I sometimes add a teaspoon or so of sugar.
4. In a mixer bowl (I have a Kitchenaid  mixer with stand and use the white paddle– it makes one handed baking possible– always a plus when you have fussy babies to hold!), I combine about 3 cups of oats, one cup of flour (or omit flour if gluten free), and cinnamon and nutmeg to taste (maybe a 1/2 teaspoon or so).
5. Once well mixed, I keep it on low/mix and just add about 1 to 2 cups of brown sugar (depending on the sweetness desired ) and then start to cube up butter and slowly add butter to the mixture.
6. Eventually it will start to come together and start to stick in clumps.  I usually add close to 2 sticks of butter (hey, it is dessert after all- I prefer a great tasting dessert once a week to mediocre 3 times a week.  So in my opinion don’t skimp on the butter or the brown sugar:) )
7. Put fruit mixture on bottom of a glass dish.
8. Take the crumble mixture and cover the fruit.  You can really pile up this crumble mixture on the fruit because it’s the best part!
9. Bake on middle rack at 350 for about 35-45 minutes.  Don’t let the top burn!  If you need to, cover loosely with foil if top browning too much.
10. Let cool for half hour and enjoy while warm.  Add a big scoop of ice cream on top and this will be one of the best desserts around!
11. Enjoy! 🙂

This is so easy, even the kids can help. Honestly, having them join in the picking gets you all outside enjoying each other.  It’s a win-win for many reasons.  I am the first one to admit that I have resorted to hiding away from my children while eating chocolate cake and watching masterpiece classics –so I understand that sometimes you just need to get away and watch mindless television while eating chocolate :).  Nothing wrong with that, either!  But this one makes for an especially nice gathering of family and friends — I hope you enjoy!