Guest Post: Schmancy Summer Crisp

I'm in a terrible hurry to finish packing, so Maggie is taking the reins today with another (!!) enticing dessert. See you on the other side, pals!


Ladies and Gentlemen, summer fruit season is at its peak. Plums, nectarines, blueberries, blackberries, peaches, sweet cherries, nomnomnom.


This crisp is awesome with any two-fruit combo. Last week I made it with blackberries and nectarines, this week yellow sweet cherries and plums. It takes about 3 ½ minutes to throw together and friends will be impressed when you tell them there’s thyme in the topping. The challenging part is not eating the whole thing right away.

Schmancy Summer Crisp

Crisp topping adapted from this.

• 4 plums
• 1 ½ lbs yellow sweet cherries
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• 4 tablespoons butter, cold and cut into little pieces
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 5 or 6 large leaves fresh thyme, ripped into little bits
• ½ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cut up the fruit (cherries in halves, plums in 1-inch cubes…or however you prefer them) and throw it into a deep baking dish (mine was about 2 inches deep, 12 inches in diameter). In a separate bowl, mix the whole wheat flour, butter, brown sugar, thyme, and walnuts. Mix together, and don’t worry if the butter remains in little pieces so long as it’s evenly distributed otherwise. Pour the crisp mix atop the fruit.

Bake for 20 minutes or so, until the topping is golden brown. For best results, serve warm out of the oven.