Pumpkin Crisp

Perfect Pairing:  Whipped Cream

You know it is the fall season when all of the cooking blogs forget about heirloom tomatoes and focus all of their attention on pumpkin, apples, and soup.  Food people get really excited about the fall season.  The first crisp breeze in the air makes everyone stock up on canned pumpkin.  Oh man, remember when there was a shortage a few years ago?  Food blogger fall nightmare is what that was.

I had that familiar urge to bake something pumpkin-y right on time.  One of my favorite fall desserts is a pumpkin crunch cake that uses a yellow cake mix and lots of butter.  It is so crazy good.  I wanted to do something like that but maybe a bit healthier, so I came up with this Pumpkin Crisp.  I didn’t remember ever seeing anything like it but thought why wouldn’t that work??  The base is basically a pumpkin pie without the crust, and the topping is very similar to what I use on apple crisps. 

I was so pleased with the result!  It was delicious, the perfect fall dessert.  I am not claiming this is health food, but nutritionally it could be a lot worse.  

I par baked the base so that the yummy topping didn’t sink.  I used pecans in the crumble topping but walnuts would be great as well.

You have to top something like this with a little whipped cream.  I didn’t want to make homemade whipped cream (NOT health food) so I went the convenient route. 

First I had good ol’ Cool Whip in the cart.  Then I looked at the ingredient list and just couldn’t do it.  The first ingredient was water, but that was followed by hydrogenated vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup, and then regular corn syrup.  I decided to go with the slightly better (still not healthy) Reddi Wip since I was just more comfortable with the ingredient list. 

One year ago on Perfecting the Pairing - Candy Corn Mix

Two years ago on Perfecting the Pairing - Halloween Candy Bark

Click "Read more" for the recipe....

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Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Perfect Pairing:  Last rhubarb of the season

There are not many desserts you can make with a vegetable.  Rhubarb is such a funny ingredient.  The raw form is anything but tasty, but once it is cooked with some sugar?  Amazing. 

During my childhood we had rhubarb growing in the backyard.  My dad kept a keen eye on its process and as soon as there was enough for a pie he would bring it to my mom.  His favorite thing in the world is rhubarb cream pie.  In fact, about 30 years ago my mom decided to start up her own business with Longaberger.  She needed a few hundred dollars for her start-up kit and asked my dad if they could spare the extra money.  He jokingly said he would lend it to her, but would charge interest of two rhubarb cream pies.  I am sure he would have said yes no matter what, but was serious about the pies.  It ended up being a very good investment on his part as my mom is still with Longaberger today!  I plan on making my dad a rhubarb cream pie this weekend for Father’s Day.  If you are looking for some manly recipes, check out last year’s Father’s Day post.

On a recent trip to the grocery store I saw a huge display of rhubarb.  I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but bought a bunch since I knew it was going to be going out of season soon.  I decided to make a quick dessert with rhubarb’s perfect pairing, strawberries.  This Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp is so simple and delicious.  I used orange zest and juice to give it some freshness; it also helps to balance the sugar.  The topping is pretty standard, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts.  Of course this is best served warm with vanilla ice cream! 

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Apple Crisp

Perfect Pairing:  Golden Delicious or Yellow Delicious Apples

What is it about fall weather that makes you want to pick apples, eat pumpkin flavored treats, play in leaves and dress up like a ridiculous character?  I have no explanation for it but I am definitely prone to fall-themed emotional attachments.  This apple crisp is perfect for those “crisp” fall days when you are craving a cozy dessert.  Of course it is best served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt.

The Perfect Pairing for this apple crisp is golden delicious or yellow delicious apples.  These apples are not the best for snacking but they are great in desserts.   You can make this with other varieties of apples but I think these are the best varieties for apple desserts.  I act like I know what I am talking about…. But I have learned this from my grandma and mom who have made a ridiculous number of apple pies and apple crisps.  This advice comes straight from the gurus of apple dessert.  They know what they are talking about!

Apple Crisp

Lindsay at Perfecting the Pairing

Ingredients:

·          4 cups apples, peeled and diced (preferably Golden Delicious or Yellow Delicious)

·         ½ cup sugar

·         2 Tb flour

·         1/8 tsp salt

·         ¼ tsp cinnamon

·         ½ tsp vanilla

·         1/8 tsp nutmeg

·         ¾ cup old fashioned oats

·         ¾ cup flour

·         ¼ tsp baking soda

·         ¼ tsp baking powder

·         ½ cup brown sugar

·         4 Tb butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl combined the diced apples and next six ingredients (through nutmeg).  Stir until apples are evenly coated.  Pour apple mixture into a greased 11x7 or 9x9 dish.  In the same bowl combine the oats, flour and remaining ingredients.  Stir until combined.  Pour the oat mixture over the apples and press down lightly.  Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until apples are bubbly and the top is golden.

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Blueberry Crisp

Perfect Pairing: Vanilla ice cream

This is officially my new favorite dessert…. to eat and make!   There is nothing exceedingly fancy or sophisticated about this blueberry crisp but it is so tasty and very easy to make.  I adapted a recipe that was recently featured in Cooking Light magazine.  I added some lemon zest to the berries, removed the walnuts, decreased the salt, increased the cinnamon and doubled the amount of oatmeal.  All of these changes are noted below.

The blueberries are tossed with corn starch, vanilla, brown sugar and lemon zest.  They are topped with a combination of flour, cornmeal (adds a nice crunch), brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and oatmeal.  The oatmeal portion is combined in a food processor which makes it a piece of cake, er crisp, to put together but it chops up the oatmeal more than I would like.  I like to sprinkle some whole old fashioned oats on top right before it goes in the oven so you still see the oats.

The Perfect Pairing for this crisp is nothing original but it is a necessity.  This blueberry crisp is best served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt.  Enough said.

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