Enjoying Summer Bounty with Summer Fruit Crumble

Just when I am about to post about summer fruits, summer is officially over. While East Coast is hit by hurricane Irene, and Texas and other states are scorching hot, weather here in northern California is great as usual, about 80 F constantly during the day, and low 60's F at night. This is exactly why people love California, cool and gentle breeze, not humid and not dry. Perfect.

I am now in a week break from all the baking duties. I was really busy with quite a bit of cake stuff including 90th birthday cake, sorbet making frenzy (and still going), putting use of all the beautiful summer produce we have here in tarts, ice cream, and more cake.

There was my niece's first birthday party involving a full dessert table and a two-tiered cake. There was also a dessert table and wedding cake I made for a wedding 1.5 weeks ago. In between all this craziness, I also went for a few-day trip to Boston for a different wedding and very quick "vacation" (it ended up not being a vacation at all due to lack of sleep and food the whole time we're there, lots of walking too!). I was back mid week last week and immediately planning for my sis-in-law birthday. I feel dizzy just writing all these stuff, but just in case you're wondering where I have been, well... there you go.

I have no plan for this coming labor day weekend really, I am thinking of spending the time in the kitchen baking for my pleasure (not for any particular occasion), although I need to make more cakes for the following weekend (it never stops). Taking pictures is now a lower priority, as long as everything gets done, and most of the time, they're done in the nick of time, cutting it really close to the due timing. But I do have quite a bit of desserts I managed to squeeze in about 1-2 months ago and I will post them one post at a time.

Like this dessert for example, not planned at all. I opened my fridge one day and found a lot of different type of fruits, apricots from church friend, plums from my coworker, cherries I bought at farmers' market, peaches I bought when I passed through a fruit stand, you name it, it's there. I decided to make a quick summer fruit crumble with them, probably the easiest way to use up all of them all in one dessert.

I made the crumble first and refrigerate them until I was ready to use them. I made more in advance and keep the rest in an airtight container in the freezer and you can use them for other tarts, or even cake or parfait and ice cream topping.

It was fairly quick and easy to make this dessert. I served it with vanilla bean ice cream that I made a while ago and fresh apricot slices.

Speaking of summer produce, my fridge is now full of pounds of fresh sweet raspberries and strawberries, a few pounds of cherries too. I am too excited (and a bit overwhelmed) just thinking of the possibilities of their destiny in a cake/dessert form. A suggestion of your favorite summer cake/dessert that includes berries and/or cherries is greatly appreciated :).

Enjoy!

Summer Fruit Crumble

Crumble Topping
100g unsalted butter
100g flour
100g granulated sugar
75g almond flour
pinch of salt

• Mix all of the ingredients in a mixer with a paddle attachment until crumbly, or mix by hand.
• Crumble on a baking sheet and refrigerate until ready to use

Fruit Filling

400g Summer fruits (apricot, peach, nectarine, raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, plums, cherries, etc.)
10g flour (you can add more if you're using fruits that release a lot of juice like strawberry)
25 g sugar (you can adjust this too if your fruits are more on the tart or sweeter side)
lemon zest ( a bout 1/2 tsp-1 tsp or so)
1/2 pod of vanilla bean, scrape the seeds (optional)

• Cut up the larger fruit into pieces and toss them together with the flour, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla bean seeds (if using)
• Divide between ramekins
• Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for about 30 minutes or until it's bubbly and the crumble topping is nicely browned.
• Enjoy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or just plain sweetened whipped cream