5 Ingredients or Fewer

Plum Crisp With Toasted Oat Streusel

by:
June  3, 2019
3.7
18 Ratings
Plum Crisp With Toasted Oat Streusel
Photo by Julia Gartland
  • Prep time 20 minutes
  • Cook time 50 minutes
  • Serves 8
Author Notes

From a distance, this fruit crisp looks like any other. Sweet, saucy baked fruit with a buttery, crumbly streusel on top. But if you look—and smell—closer, you’ll pick up on a big difference: toasted oats. Just like toasted nuts, this little step yields roasty, caramely, complex flavor. (If you want, you can toast them in advance and store them in an airtight container.) While this recipe calls for plums, feel free to swap in your favorite stone fruit: peaches, nectarines, apricots, you name it. Like with fruit pie, you’ll want this to cool for a little while before serving. It’s great warm, with ice cream or whipped cream or crème fraîche or straight-up cream. It’s also great room temperature and even cold, eaten straight out of the fridge in the middle of the night. —Emma Laperruque

What You'll Need
Watch This Recipe
Plum Crisp With Toasted Oat Streusel
Ingredients
  • Streusel topping
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3/4 cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, cubed, at a cool-ish room temperature, plus more for greasing the pan
  • Plum filling
  • 3 pounds plums
  • 2/3 cup light brown sugar, plus more as needed depending on the plums’ sweetness
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon cold water
  • 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more as needed depending on the plums’ juiciness
Directions
  1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Add the oats to a rimmed sheet pan and toast in the oven for about 12 minutes, or until golden-brown and nutty-fragrant, rotating and tossing halfway through. Let cool completely.
  2. Raise the oven temperature to 375°F. Butter a 2 ½ quart baking dish.
  3. Prep the plums: For larger plums, cut into eighths; for smaller ones, quarters. You want big bite-sized pieces. Throw away the pits. Add the plum chunks to a large bowl, along with the brown sugar, salt, pepper, and water. Toss so all the plums are coated in sugar, then taste and adjust accordingly. Leave this mixture to hang out for a bit (letting the fruit macerate for a few minutes helps you gauge how juicy the fruit is and how much flour you need to add).
  4. Back to the streusel: Combine the flour, brown sugar, and salt in a bowl. Rub the mixture between your hands until it’s well combined and no brown sugar lumps remain. Add the cooled oats and toss. Add the butter cubes and cut in the butter with your fingertips, squeezing and tossing, until a clumpy, shortbread-y dough forms. (You can also incorporate the butter in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment if you prefer.)
  5. Add the flour to the plum mixture and toss to combine. (The liquid should be a little thicker than heavy cream. Add more flour as needed.) Pour this into the buttered baking dish. Evenly sprinkle the streusel on top.
  6. Bake the crisp for about 50 minutes, or until the top is golden-brown and the fruit is soft, bubbly, and saucy.
  7. Cool for at least 30 minutes before eating. Serve with ice cream, crème fraîche, whipped cream, or a big pour of heavy cream.
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  • Monica Davis
    Monica Davis
  • Lisa Keys
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  • Emma Laperruque
    Emma Laperruque
  • Anna Sunderlage
    Anna Sunderlage
Emma Laperruque
Emma was the food editor at Food52. She created the award-winning column, Big Little Recipes, and turned it into a cookbook in 2021. These days, she's a senior editor at Bon Appétit, leading digital cooking coverage. Say hello on Instagram at @emmalaperruque.

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7 Reviews

Anna S.
Anna S. August 1, 2022
Turns out beautifully every time now. It took me a few tries to get the topping right. At first, my oven was running too hot. I also realized I was not cutting the butter in enough. After fixing those two issues, the crisp topping turns out perfect! This is a go-to dessert in our household when we have peaches or plums.
 
Mary C.
Mary C. August 4, 2020
This was a big hit with my family! I loved the slight tartness with the rich buttery topping. I will definitely keep this recipe in my arsenal for a repeat performance!
 
Joyce W.
Joyce W. July 27, 2020
Not crazy about the topping, seemed a lot like cereal to me and it was too thick.
 
Monica D.
Monica D. July 26, 2020
Turned out great! We added a couple of nectarines just to get to the full three lbs of fruit. The streusdel was light and delicious. This is great for dessert or special breakfast.
 
Lisa K.
Lisa K. June 11, 2019
In addition to the toasted oats I add nuts and a touch of spice that compliments the fruit. This is a crisp. A crumble is just butter, sugar and flour squeezed together to form clumps or crumbs for topping the fruit.
 
Claudia
Claudia June 9, 2019
Made this for breakfast today, and everyone loved it. I used frozen berries instead, for convenience reasons, and it worked like a charm. Will be putting this recipe on regular rotation here.
 
Emma L.
Emma L. June 11, 2019
Thanks, Claudia! Glad you enjoyed and excited to hear that frozen berries worked well.