strawberry crisp

Growing up, my mom made one dessert more than any other: her apple crisp. It's a dessert that's hard to get tired of...tart granny smith apples covered in a few simple ingredients produces a dessert that's easy and delicious. We served it over ice cream at night and ate it for breakfast the next morning. The original recipe is from the Vegetarian Epicure, a 1970's cookbook that must've appealed to my mom's latent hippie tendencies. The best part about this recipe is that it's a crisp in it's purest form: no oats, no nuts, just apples and a buttery, sugary, crispy crust. It's fantastic. But you might've noticed that the picture above is of strawberries, not apples. That's because I found a great deal on strawberries at the Farmer's Market this week and decided to see if the recipe could translate into a strawberry crisp.

And did it? Well, it was certainly delicious. The only issue I encountered was that the strawberries turned very "jammy," and it was more of a strawberry mess than a strawberry crisp. I think, were I to make it again, I might double the "crisp" coating and do two layers of strawberries and crisp coating. Or I might be more vigilant about checking on the crisp in the oven, instead of just assuming that the baking time would be the same! Oh well...onto the recipe!

Strawberries and dry ingredients, ready to go in the pan. Guest appearance by our new Thai chili pepper plant!

Filling:
Approximately two "pints" of strawberries (give or take a few for eating...), halved
Juice of 1/2 a lemon (for squeezing over the strawberries after halved)
2 tbs. cold water

Topping:
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. cold butter, cut into smaller pieces
dash of cinnamon
dash of nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350.
Once you've halved the strawberries, toss them in the lemon juice and let sit in a baking pan (I used a 9x9, but I actually think this recipe is pretty flexible about pan size...just nothing too deep, and make sure you have enough topping to cover the strawberries). When the berries are in the ban, pour the 2 tbs. of water over them.

With an electric mixer or a food processor, combine flour, sugars, butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix or process until you've got something that resembles a coarse meal. If you go ahead and feel the topping, you should be able to re-form the topping into a very loose "dough" by compressing it with your fingers. There's no need to do that, it's just helpful to know that you have the right consistency. Sprinkle this mixture over the strawberries. Don't mix the strawberries and the topping. Just sprinkle it over and lightly pat the topping down.

Cover the pan with foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 30. This will produce something very "jammy," with not very much "crisp." If you want it crispier, I recommend keeping an eye on the baking time (maybe only an additional 15, not 30 minutes without the foil?) or doing two layers of topping.

Want to make this with apples? Just replace the strawberries with 4-5 granny smith apples. Recipe adapted from the 1972 edition of The Vegetarian Epicure, by Anna Thomas.