Valentine’s Day is upon us, and that means we need dessert.
I’m generally of the “every dessert needs chocolate” mindset, but in these dark, dark, dark days of winter, I’ve been craving all things summer. I’ve been dreaming of fruit. Specifically, berries. Like, the wild berries you can pick on the side of the road in Oregon, freegan style. And the baskets of berries we bring home from the farmer’s market and pile on fruit pizza all summer long.
But since berry season is still just a dream here in the middle of February, I’m settling for frozen fruit, which is probably the best thing to happen to winter.
This simple berry crumble is going to celebrate the berry, whether it’s fresh or frozen (and you can bet I’m going to make this all summer with fresh berries). But it’s also going to celebrate the crumble. And if we’re being honest, the cinnamony, crunchy, oaty topping is the main event when it comes to crumbles.
And when you are stirring together these simple, healthy, crumble ingredients, you’re going to be all, whoa; that’s a lot of crumble topping. But that’s what you want. You want every bite of warm, juicy berry to have a crunchy burst of topping.
This particular crumble was inspired by Shauna Niequist’s recipe from “Bread and Wine.” I’ve made approximately 6 variations of that crumble in the past 2 months (berries, galore!), and this is my very favorite. It’s the perfect way to finish your meal, especially since you can just pop it in the oven before you sit down to dinner. And 40 minutes later, you have summertime in a pie dish. Perfecto.
And if you are a member of the Ringer household, you might find yourself eating this as a pre-dinner snack when the curry you made ends up taking an hour and a half LONGER to cook than you thought it would, leaving you to eat dinner at the unholy hour of 8:30 pm. This berry crumble saved us from hungry belly meltdown. Long live the crumble.
- 5 cups berries, fresh or frozen* (I used strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries)
- 1½ cups old-fashioned oats
- ½ cup whole wheat flour
- ½ cup pecan pieces
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Pour the berries evenly into a 9-inch pie dish.
- Stir together all the crumble ingredients and layer on top of the berries.
- Bake for 40 minutes, or until crumble has browned and fruit is bubbly.
-Ally
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