My daughter Amanda has always had unique and original ideas. For her 14th birthday this month, she declared she did not want the usual birthday cake. Instead, she requested a fruit crumble.
I found this recipe on the New York Times website for a mixed berry almond crunch crumble. It calls for 8 cups of mixed berries including blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. However, Amanda does not like blueberries so I adapted the recipe and simply used 4 cups of red raspberries and 4 cups of sliced peaches for the fruit filling. I didn’t bother to peel the peaches, just washed and sliced them.
The raspberry peach combination worked wonderfully well for its mix of tart and sweet flavors, which tasted just as bright as the lovely pink and orange fruit colors looked. It’s a great way to use summer fruits before fall arrives oh-so soon. It also makes a lovely change from the usual birthday cake with its brown sugar-cinnamon-ginger-almond-buttery crumble topping. Besides its buttery spicy flavor, the topping adds a satisfying chewy texture with sliced almonds.
It’s simple to pull this delightful dessert together, and it’s a lot easier to make the crumble topping than to make pie crust.
Enjoy this summer fruit deliciousness baked up in all its crumbly goodness before the best fresh berries and peaches say goodbye until next summer.
