By: Ellen Helman,
Photographs by: John Blais
Food and Prop Stylist: Jennifer Pracht Cobblers, Crisps, Slumps and Fools Summer is the fruit lover’s season, as
the produce aisles overflow with luscious, juicy
stone fruits and a variety of colorful berries. Many
of these succulent summer fruits are destined for
tasty traditional dishes.
Ever since Colonial times, Americans have had a love affair with
sweet fruit desserts. Pies are a favorite, but crisps, cobblers, slumps,
shortcakes, and fools also offer tempting ways to celebrate the
season’s best. The sources for their homey - even strange - names
may be murky, but the unusual monikers somehow seem appropriate
for these delectable concoctions of sweetened fruit.
A crisp, also called a crumble, is a simpler version of a pie.
There’s no crust - the fruit is placed directly in the baking dish and
topped with crumbled, sweetened dough that crisps at the top as it
bakes. Cobblers, slumps, and shortcakes are all based on a biscuit
or scone-style dough, which can be made with milk, buttermilk,
or cream, along with butter or margarine that’s cut into the fl our.
The “short” in shortcakes refers to this shortening, a generic term
for the fat used to make the biscuit-like dough. The way the dough
interacts with the fruit differentiates these desserts.
In a cobbler, spoonfuls of dough are plopped on top of the fruit,
so the finished product looks a bit like cobblestones. A pandowdy is
similar, except midway through baking, the dough is pressed down
into the pan to break up the fruit.
A slump, or grunt, is made on the stove top. The fruit is cooked
and simmered, then dollops of dough are dropped into the bubbling
fruit like dumplings, making grunt-like noises as they cook. Because
they’re partially steamed and boiled, slumps have a somewhat
denser texture than shortcakes, where the same dough is baked in
an oven, then split open and topped with fruit.
Light and airy, fools have been enjoyed in kitchens with English
roots for more than 500 years. Made by pairing equal parts of
puréed, stewed fruit and whipped cream, this decidedly unfoolish
dessert is truly heavenly - like fluffy, fruity ice cream.
