Shauna’s Mom’s Blueberry Crisp

Confession: I’m writing and posting this from my phone. I’ll either be impressed with the WP iPhone app or not. We’ll see how it goes… 

This summer I’ve been nannying two little boys (Kiddo #1 is 6 and Kiddo #2 is 4). They eat fruit like monkeys at the zoo. I can say that because we have been to the zoo a lot over the last 6 weeks – perk to living outside San Diego!

 When I saw a bunch of blackberries not being eaten, I knew I needed to find a creative use for them before they molded. Enter: Shauna Niequist and her book, “Bread and Wine”. It was just sitting on the kitchen counter and one morning, while I was doing the “Eat your breakfast” song and dance with Kiddo #1, I cracked it open to find good stories paired with what looked to be good recipes.   

Ingredients

4 cups fruit (There were 3 cups of blackberries, so I supplemented them with 1 cup frozen blueberries.)

Crisp Topping:

1 cup old-fashioned oats (We only had plain instant oatmeal packets; 3 packets is 1 cup and they sufficed well enough.)

1/2 cup raw, unsalted pecans, chopped

1/2 cup almond meal

1/4 cup maple syrup (I’m not Ina Garten, so I don’t care if you use the “good” stuff or Aunt Jemima. We used Auntie J and it was just fine.)

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Mix crisp topping ingredients together. I had a 4-cup measuring cup and measured and mixed everything in there. Hey, fewer dishes and its topping, not science. 
2. Pour fruit in 8×8 baking dish. Spoon the topping over it. 
3. Bake at 350 degrees 35 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and delicious.    

 I added a pinch of cinnamon to the topping because I love cinnamon. This crisp is not terribly sweet, so it would be good with vanilla ice cream or maybe a good sprinkling of brown sugar on the top. It also goes well with a cup of coffee in the morning, kind of like a dressed up oatmeal.   Sorry, I was halfway through my fancy oatmeal crisp breakfast snack before I thought to take a picture.