Weekend Cooking: Ina Garten's Plum Crunch

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I love late summer fruit. But last week at the farmers' market I may have gone a bit crazy when I bought a half peck of prune plums (aka Italian prunes). We did our best to eat them up, but yesterday I realized there were still a ton of plums in the fruit bowl.

My first thought? Time to make a crisp. I generally wing it when I make a crisp, but this time I decided to start with a recipe from Back to Basics by Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. As is my usual procedure, I made a few changes to suit our tastes and ended up with a bowl full of yummy and a new September favorite dessert.

I'll give you the recipe as it appears on the Food Network website, which I'm sure is wonderful as written, and I'll also tell you what I did differently so you can adjust accordingly.

My changes: I cut the brown sugar for the fruit by half. We like the natural sweetness of the plums more than we like the added sugar. But if your plums are particularly tart, you might want to add all the sugar. I added Chambord because I like it better than Creme de Cassis. I used almonds instead of walnuts because I wanted to share the crisp with a friend who is allergic to walnuts. Finally, I made only half the topping because I don't like to overwhelm the fruit.

Plum Crunch

For the fruit

• 3 pounds Italian prune plums, pitted and quartered
• 1½ cups light brown sugar, lightly packed
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons creme de cassis liqueur

For the topping

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup oatmeal
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• ½ pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

For the fruit, in a large bowl combine the plums, brown sugar, flour, cassis. Pour the mixture into 12 by 8-inch shallow baking dish.

For the topping, combine all the ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is the size of peas. Scatter evenly over the plum mixture.

Bake the plum crunch for 40 to 45 minutes, until the plums are bubbling and the top is browned. Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream, if desired.

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