A Summer Treat

Peach-Blueberry Almond Crisp

Fresh blueberries and peaches are covered with a sweet cinnamon crunchy crumble topping and baked to perfection! This dessert screams summer!

Cook's notes:For easier removal of peach skins place peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds, remove with a slotted spoon and run peaches under cold water. Remove skins.
Ingredients:
For the Filling:

• 7 cups sliced peaches (about 7 large peaches)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar 
• 1 tsp. corn starch 
• 1 tsp. Saigon cinnamon 
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract 
• optional 2 TB. Peach Schnapps
• 1-'1/2 cups blueberries

For the Topping:

• 2/3 cup old fashioned oats
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar 
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1/2 tsp. salt 
• 1 tsp. ground Saigon cinnamon 
• 5 TB. chilled butter, cut into pieces 
• 1 cup chopped Blue Diamond Honey Roasted Cinnamon Almonds or 1 cup crushed almonds mixed with 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• optional ice cream for serving 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350° and spray a 9 x 9-inch baking dish or a 2 qt. baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine sliced peaches with the flour, sugar, corn starch, and peach schnapps if using and vanilla. Gently mix and let sit 10 minutes. 
• In a separate large bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon. Stir until well combined and the brown sugar clumps are broken down. Add the butter pieces and mix in with your hands until you have a crumbly mixture. A food processor can be used for this step pulsing butter pieces in. Stir in chopped almonds.
• Gently stir blueberries into peach mixture and use a slotted spoon to place filling in baking dish. 
• Evenly sprinkle the oat topping over peaches and blueberry filling. 
• Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and the crisp is bubbling. Remove from the oven, place on a wire rack, and cool for 10 minutes before serving. 
  

Some last words... A scoop of vanilla ice cream would certainly elevate this dessert to rock star status. It was a perfect treat to celebrate John Ciardi's birthday June 24th (1916-1986). He was an American poet, translator and etymologist.

"How Does A Poem Mean" is Ciardi's most well-known work. This book was published in 1959 and details how to read, write and teach poetry. It is considered a standard text for college and high school poetry courses. Ciardi was a regular commentator on NPR, and an editor, poetry critic and columnist for Saturday Review for many years. While John Ciardi is primarily known as a poet his translation of Dante' s Divine Comedy was highly acclaimed. Ciardi's poetry is much like that of Walt Whitman and Vachel Lindsay. He sought to make poetry more accessible to all by clarity and immediacy.
The River is a Piece of Sky is from his first book of poems for children, "The Reason for the Pelican"published in 1959.

The River is a Piece of Sky
by John Ciardi

From the top of the bridge
The river below
is a piece of sky-
Until you throw
A penny in
Or a cockleshell
Or a pebble or two
Or a bicycle bell
Or a cobblestone
Or a fat man's cane-
And then you can see
It's a river again.

The difference you'll see
When you drop a penny;
The river has splashes,
The sky hasn't any.