Berry Crumble (or Cobbler or Crisp)

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Not quite a crisp. Not quite a cobbler. I’m calling it a berry crumble. It’s Delish! So easy because it can be made with frozen berries.

It’s been causing me some stress to decide whether to call this recipe a cobbler or a crisp.  I’m no food historian, and I don’t happen to be up on my precise cobbler vs. crisp definitions.  Cobblers have always seemed more ‘cakey’ to me and crisps are more…well, crisp.

That’s where my problem comes in here.  The delicious topping for this dessert starts out much like a traditional crisp recipe, but there’s one main difference that makes it almost like a cookie topping.

It’s really delicious.  It is crisp.  But it’s also kind of chewy.  I really love it.

And with that eloquent description, let me tell you how to make it!

I pieced this recipe together while looking for a red and blue berry dessert to make for the 4th of July.  All of the berry crisps/cobblers that I found were for square pans and I needed to make a 9 x 13.  I’ll give you ingredients for both versions.

This recipe is super quick and easy.  It starts with frozen berries.  And you can literally use any combination you like.  I’ve made this twice recently.  The first one was made with blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and sliced strawberries.  For the second one, which I made for a potluck, I used up the berries I had bought for the first one, and then filled it out with blueberries.  It was mostly blueberries.

Of course you could use fresh berries, I would lessen the cooking time, though.

So you mix your berries with a splash of lemon juice (you could leave this out if you didn’t have it, it just brightens the flavor a bit), a pinch of salt, some flour and sugar.  There’s really not much sugar in the berry mixture at all.

For the topping, you start like you’re making a regular crisp topping (like for an apple crisp).  You mix oats and flour, brown and white sugars, a pinch of salt and butter.  And THAT’S where things get cooky.  Instead of cutting in cold butter for a crisp, you melt the butter.  This makes mixing so much faster!  (Just don’t over mix, or it’ll get tough)

When you add it in, it moistens the mixture, and it feels somewhat like a cookie dough, but it’s more crumbly.

Ah!  I’ll call it a crumble.  Stress alleviated.

Put that all over the top of your berries and bake (on a foil lined pan, of course, to keep your oven clean in case of drips).  Bake it up until it’s bubbly and brown on top.

Warm with vanilla ice cream?  Perfect!

Room temperature with or without ice cream for dessert, or a snack, or breakfast … totally yummy!

If you are looking for a berry dessert, this is the one.

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