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Crisp Topping

Lightened-up Fruit Crisp Topping with Coconut Palm Sugar

Beth Lee
After surviving the graduation, conference, graduation scenario, I was too tired to cook, but I wanted to mark the beginning of summer for the kids and fresh fruit crisps do that for us. Since we eat so many, I thought testing this healthier sugar might help me lighten up the topping without losing its usual appeal.
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Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course Dessert
Servings 12 servings
Calories 203 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup coconut palm sugar or brown sugar
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour or unbleached white flour or white whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • ½ cup chopped pecans optional but highly recommended
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 8 tablespoon unsalted butter softened

Instructions
 

  • In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, oats, pecans (if you’re using), salt, and cinnamon.
  • Then, using a pastry blender or if you’re like me, your hands (I wear disposable food-safe gloves), mix in the butter until the topping looks like little pea-sized pieces.
  • You can store the topping in a storage container until you’re ready to use it, either in the fridge or freezer, if you plan to keep it more than a few days.

Notes

NOTE: I used significantly less butter than the Deborah Madison recipe I referred to in my original crisp post. I think it worked and my kids gave the topping a thumbs up, but feel free to modify amounts in this recipe. A little more butter for a slightly richer topping. A little more or less sugar as your taste buds dictate. Perhaps a variation on flavor – more cinnamon, no cinnamon, cardamom perhaps? Variation is the beauty of a crisp, both in the topping and filling.
This post is focusing on the topping but here’s a quick bit about the filling, I use whatever fruit I have around, mixing it a bit haphazardly with some sugar – 3 or 4 tablespoons for a smallish crisp and a couple tablespoons of flour and some vanilla extract and cinnamon. Again – use your imagination with the flavors and sugar amounts. You can’t really go too far wrong. While rhubarb is still around, try a strawberry rhubarb crisp – that was what my daughter and her friends requested last week and not a bite remained in the pan that evening. And for a small pie size crisp, you'll need about 1 cup of topping. For a larger 9 x 12 pan, probably about  1 ½ cups to 2 cups of topping.

Nutrition

Calories: 203kcalCarbohydrates: 24gProtein: 2gFat: 11gSaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 124mgPotassium: 79mgFiber: 2gSugar: 8gVitamin A: 235IUCalcium: 17mgIron: 0.8mg
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