This post goes to the facebook group Home Bakers Guild, as part of their Blogger Tuesdays. 

So, here I am, for the third time this month.

Last week I was here with a sandwich cake (Smorgastarta) and the week before that was savory pepper  & corn muffins.

This time, I have brought a bit of sweet with me. Not an overtly sweet recipe, but sweet enough and easy enough to become a quick favorite. Presenting the poorer cousin of pies and tarts – the crumble/crisp! Add oats to your topping and you have a crisp. Leave it out and you have a crumble.

It’s full of ‘fruit goodness’, so you can almost pass it off as healthy :D (well, if you overlook the butter and sugar part. But then, we won’t go there, we will focus on the fruit part, OK? ).

One great thing about U.S. is the public library here and the amazing amount of good books you find there. I like to read(though it’s limited to cookery books right now), so a good library is always appreciated. But when we moved in here, the library was a really a refuge! A new place with no friends, no school for the kid and no TV meant a lot of reading time.

I was able to get really popular books like Baking from my home to yours from the library. Another good find was One Bowl Baking. I liked the sound of it. Fewer bowls are always better, right? This banana crisp recipe is not from the book, but it’s from the same author. Its a bit similar to Dorie Greenspan’s tropical crumble. So I combined a bit of both.

Enjoy the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 7 ripe bananas (ripe enough to hold its shape when sliced)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 9 tbsp melted and cooled butter (divided) – 100 gm would do
• 1 tsp vanilla (optional)
• 1 tsp peeled and grated fresh ginger, optional
• 1-2 tsp lemon zest, optional

For the topping:

• 1/2 cup sugar (light brown if possible)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup oats
• 1 cup nuts, chopped (optional – I used peanuts)

Method:

Heat the oven to 180C. Use a 9″ round pan for the crisp.

Melt butter in a pan and let it cool. Slice the bananas into 1/4″ thick slices.

Gather your ingredients.

Take 3 tbsp butter and coat the base of the pan.  Add 3 tbsp sugar over the melted butter. Add the sliced bananas over this and keep aside. Add vanilla essence, grated ginger and lemon zest if you are using.

Add the flour, remaining sugar,salt, oats and nuts into the remaining butter. Mix with your hands to get a crumble. Dorie Greenspan’s recipe is a bit different. She uses softened butter. It is first creamed with sugar and then flour and the nuts are added to it. She freezes the topping for about 20 minutes to get a better crumble.

Top the banana layer with the crumble. You should ideally just scatter it all over and NOT press down the topping. I couldn’t resist, obviously :D! If you freeze the topping, you will get uneven chunks which is better than a smooth, flat top.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes, until golden and bubbly. Take off the oven, serve warm or at room temperature. Pair with ice cream for the best results :-).

This recipe can be extended to other fruits as well. Apples, berries, cherries, mangoes, peach, pear, stone fruits…any summer fruit, on its own or a combination is fine. I am planning to try with mangoes when they are in season.

Enjoy!