No one seems to be happy about the state of public school lunches in America – they are quite appalling. When I think back, it seems that complaining about school lunches has always been the norm – it’s just that now we’re more concerned with the actual nutritional value that kids receive from a lunch with a reimbursement value of $2.72. I’m not going to go down that road today… Rather, I was reminiscing about the one day every week – I think it was Friday – that I looked forward to cafeteria fare way back when I was a school girl. Friday was the day the white-haired lunch ladies served up Apple Brown Betty made from scratch. Forget whatever else was on the tray; with your carton of cold whole milk – it was a sweet, satisfying mid-day treat!
With a few peaches left from a carton of juicy, very sweet Summer Flame peaches hubs bought at Trader Joe’s, I decide to splurge and make a dessert that actually included butter and sugar. This is a rare occasion in our house; I prefer savory over sweet and over the years we’ve all but eliminated sugar from our diet except for the occasional batch of cookies that The Young Baker makes when she’s at home. Normally, I would blend the peaches into a smoothie with coconut milk or yogurt, but on this day, I was struck with the desire to make a crisp (or Betty) like the hair-netted lunch ladies used to make.
The recipe? It’s so simple: I sliced the peaches (leaving the skin on), placed them in a small saucepan, added a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of butter and cooked the mixture for a few minutes to marry the flavors. Poured the peach mixture into a baking dish. Then, using the same saucepan, melted 2 tablespoons of butter, added a cup of granola and ½ cup of brown sugar, mix them together over low heat and spread it over the fruit. Baked at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes until the topping is browned. Serve with vanilla ice cream and enjoy this down-home dessert 🙂
Besides being quicker and easier to make than a pie because there’s no dough involved, I wondered what exactly differentiates a crisp from a crumble, betty, slump, grunt, etc. (Where do they get these names is my next question!) I perused a few sites and recipetips.com had the best descriptions:
A crisp has baked fruit as the bottom layer and is topped with a crumbly topping which includes brown sugar, oatmeal and nuts that are mixed with the butter, flour and cinnamon that is spread over the baked fruit.
A crumble is a dessert with a crumb topping made from flour, sugar, and butter combined into a mixture that is sprinkled over sliced fruit and baked. The topping is made up of basically the same ingredients as a pastry except it doesn’t contain any liquid. When the crumble bakes the butter melts and mixes with the flour and sugar to create a crunchy, crumbly topping. A crumble is very similar to a crisp except that the topping for a crisp generally contains oats and often nuts, giving it a coarser texture that the crumbles toppings.
A Betty is a baked pudding made of layers of spiced and sugared fruit topped with buttered bread crumbs. Brown Betty is a name given to an early era baked pudding dessert made by those who came to America during the 1600’s. There are now numerous variations of this dessert that use many different types of fruit, but the most well known is Apple Brown Betty or simply Brown Betty. A combination of tart apples, (Granny Smith and Gala work well or other combinations of two to three semi-tart varieties) are cut into slices and mixed with sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and lemon juice. Pieces of bread are torn and baked or browned on the stovetop in butter, basically creating breadcrumbs to be used as a layer or filling. The sweetened and seasoned fruit is then layered with the breadcrumbs to form a baked pudding of fruit and crispy breadcrumbs that is served warm and is often topped with whipped cream or ice cream.
A grunt is a spoon pie with biscuit dough on top of stewed fruit that is steamed, not baked. A popular dessert on the east coast, it consists of fruit, most often berries, which are cooked beneath a crust of biscuit or dumpling type dough. The Grunt was named for the echo of sounds coming from the bubbling fruit under the dough as it cooks. A Grunt is similar in preparation to the Slump with the exception that the Grunt is steam cooked and the Slump is baked.
A slump is a dessert that is basically the same as a grunt as far as ingredients and construction. It consists of fruit, berries, or a mixture of fruit and berries, which are cooked beneath a crust of biscuit or dumpling type dough. The difference between the grunt and the slump is that the slump is baked uncovered instead of steamed. Some recipes call for it to be cooked on the stovetop and others use the oven. The slump was given its name because when served on a plate it has a tendency to slump.
So there you have it! Everything you ever wanted to know about oddly named fruit desserts that are not pies, cobbler, buckles, or clafoutis 🙂 Have a fantastic weekend!
Tanantha
September 22 at 12:22 pmMy school lunch was great too. I missed it sometimes 😀
Priscilla, this peach crisp is damn easy. Thank you SO much! I need to bake something soon to fix my cooking therapy and this sounds perfect!
Priscilla
September 23 at 8:48 amHi, Tanantha! This crisp is super easy and would be good for cooking therapy – it helped me 🙂
Nancy
September 22 at 1:01 pmHi Priscilla, Sadly for the most part my memories of school lunches make me cringe. Though I’m sure much better then the current ones I did not enjoy them. I think it is great that you have nice memories of this dessert and have recreated it. I love that you used peaches, apples are boring to me. It looks so delicious and something I need to make. Thanks for doing all the research now things make better sense:)
Priscilla
September 23 at 8:51 amThanks, Nancy – my brief online research cleared up the differences, now I feel the need to find out how the names originated 🙂
Magic of Spice
September 22 at 3:34 pmI do really remember school lunch… probably a reason for the 🙂 This however I would remember! Love that you left the skins on 🙂
Priscilla
September 23 at 9:01 amHaha, you would definitely remember it if you were served this as part of an otherwise boring school lunch 🙂 We don’t always have to peel fruits & veggies- there are lots nutrients and fiber in the skins!
Lauren at Keep It Sweet
September 23 at 9:10 amThat list of the difference between crumbles, crisps etc is so helpful! I kind of interchange some of them. This looks like a delicious way to use up your peaches.
Curt
September 23 at 9:39 amThat does sound quick and easy. And mighty tasty too!
RavieNomNoms
September 23 at 10:08 amThis is so beautiful!! Nicely done…peach crisp has always been one of my favorites. My college roommates grandparents lived close to the campus we both attended and every Sunday they were nice enough to take us in and feed us, you know being the poor college students we were. She ALWAYS made peach crisp or cobbler for us. It was fantastic! Thank you for reminding me of those days Priscilla! Have a great weekend
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September 23 at 11:07 amIt is a shame that school lunches are nowhere what they used to be. I do remember some of the wonderful desserts they had and this was one of them. Thanks for posting this lovely recipe-Yum!
Liz
September 23 at 11:13 amOh, yum! This is one of my favorite desserts! Yours looks perfect on the floral plate with a scoop of vanilla. Wonderful idea for the last of the summer peaches~
Emily Malloy @Cleanliness
September 23 at 12:04 pmDeliciousness!
patty
September 23 at 3:52 pmCould I just have the peach crisp for lunch and skip the hamburger, hot dog or taco that you had to suffer through before diving into the dessert?
Angie's Recipes
September 24 at 10:45 amDidn’t know about “betty and grunt”…. love the names.
The crisp looks very inviting!
Nami | Just One Cookbook
September 24 at 8:48 pmThanks for teaching me the difference of crisp and crumble, and I’ve never heard of the last 3 before! It was nice little education on dessert. =). Your quick peach crisp make my mouth water… We just ate peach as it is but next time I need to make this! It goes well with ice cream.. yum!
Monet
September 26 at 6:42 amThis looks so good, and I’m so glad you were able to leave the skins on! I’m eating a mushroom omelet as I type…but as it good as it tastes, it pales in comparison to this! I love fruit desserts. Thank you for sharing such a delicious recipe. I hope you are having a joyful start to your week!
kita
September 27 at 5:18 amLove the definitions of each of these great desserts at the bottom. I am always confused myself!
Your peach crisp sounds lovely – and so does your memory of your apple brown betty from school days.
purabi naha
September 28 at 2:59 amPriscilla, what a yummy crisp! I loved your ideas here!!
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September 29 at 1:50 pmPeaches are so wonderful for such a dish. Love the description of the different dishes with ‘fruit underneath a crust’. I have no recollection like yours of cafeteria food, except perhaps fries on Friday. Yes it was a treat to have one junk food a week back then.
Vicki Bensinger
September 29 at 5:56 pmThis is great information to know. I’ve always wondered this myself but never took the time to look it up. I’m glad you did.
Your peach crisp looks yummy. I adore peaches but never think to make a crisp with them, I usually think of apple crisp. I’ll definitely have to try this.
Thanks for sharing!
Jean
October 14 at 6:15 pmHi Priscilla! Your peach crisp looks fab! I would ignore everything else on my plate, too, if I had this to look forward to. 🙂 Got lots of catching up to do on your blog. Have a great weekend! 🙂