Apricot Blueberry Cherry Crisp.

Ahh, fruit season is heeeeere! Apricots? Check. Half flat of strawberries? Yes, please. Oranges, apples, bananas, cherries, blueberries, plums, nectarines, pluots, peaches, melons, pineapple... do you even have to ask? Organic Bartlett pears? Hand them over! Just because the weather in the city has been dreary this Memorial Day weekend, doesn't mean the kitchen has to be.

So we may or may not have gone a little overboard on the produce purchases, and rather than risk the decay of a pound of apricots, I made an apricot blueberry cherry crisp.

The recipe I used was basically this one from The Kichn, copied below:

Blueberry and Apricot Crumble

Fruit
1 1/2 pounds fresh apricots
1/2 pint (6 to 8 ounces) fresh blueberries 
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar 
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Topping
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
Pinch salt
1 (4-ounce) stick chilled butter, cut into cubes

Preheat oven to 350°F and have ready an 8x10-inch baking dish.

For the fruit
Halve, pit, and quarter the apricots and combine in a bowl with the blueberries, lemon zest and juice, brown sugar, and nutmeg. Set aside to macerate while you prepare the topping.

For the topping
In another bowl, combine flour, oats, almonds, brown sugar, nutmeg, and salt. Using your fingers, rub the butter into the mixture until it forms clumps.

Give the fruit a stir and then pour it into the baking dish, making sure apricots and blueberries are evenly distributed. Evenly sprinkle the topping over the fruit.

Bake in the oven until topping is golden brown and fruit is bubbling around the sides, about 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit at least 20 minutes before serving.

MY NOTES:
1. I didn't really measure the fruit. I think I used about a cup and a half of blueberries, a pound of apricots, and two large handfuls of cherries. Here they are looking all lovely together as they macerate:

2. No lemons in the house. After thinking about it, I consulted with the DH and we agreed to try orange juice. I'm the more cautious of the two of us when it comes to substitutions, so when he immediately pulled out the lemon press and cavalierly started juicing the orange into the fruit mix, no measuring cups in sight, I may have shoved him to the side and threatened physical violence. But only out of love-- for him and for the delicate summer stone fruit. Because I had spent the better part of the past hour pitting cherries and apricots, and couldn't handle the thought of this dish coming out tasting like oranges. Anyway, lesson learned: orange juice works. I wish I could say how much went in but it couldn't have been more than juice from half an orange. No zest.

3. No sliced almonds, so I just used a mix of roasted pecans, raw walnuts, raw almonds, and roasted cashews all chopped up-- way more than a fourth of a cup-- and it turned out fine. I forgot about the nutmeg in the topping, so it lacked some flavor. Mixed everything by hand.

4. It came out fine. The filling was VERY liquidy which makes me think perhaps I should've tossed the fruit in a tablespoon or so of flour. I forgot to take a pic of the crisp when it was whole (of course), but here it is after I drained all the extra juice... into my mouth.

5. The combination works! The cherries are especially lovely as they plump up with the juice from the other fruit.

6. Would I make this particular recipe again? Probably not. Nothing really stood out about it. But was it yummy-- yes, with all those fruits and nuts, how could it not be.

7. The DH was in charge of the mutter aloo tofu and here's a gratuitous shot of that. What a talented man he is!