If you give fresh fruit to me this summer, chances are that I’ll wash and then tumble it into a greased baking dish and bake a fruit crisp. Rhubarb, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and peaches have all bubbled away beneath a blanket of brown sugar, cinnamon, oatmeal and butter. Sure, with the exception of rhubarb, I could have enjoyed any of these raw. Yet, I can’t seem to stop myself from making and eating these treats.

What prompted this obsession I do not know. Maybe it’s a touch of summer laziness for the crisp is one of the fastest and easiest desserts to bake. What I do know is that my crisp often gets confused with other sweets. At countless dinners and parties friends have thanked me for bringing a crumble, cobbler or slump. Who’s right? And just what am I baking?

Although I think of “slump” as what my mother told me never to do, the word actually refers to a luscious dessert. Hailing from New England, it consists of fresh fruit topped with dollops of raw dough. As the ingredients stew together in a covered pot, the dough slowly oozes across the top. Some historians claim that this oozing pastry is how the slump got its name. Others, though, believe that slump refers to how the succulent dessert slouches, blob-like, on a plate.

In the case of cobbler, crust differentiates it from a slump. Rather than spoonfuls of dough, cobbler features a thick crust encasing slices of apples, peaches or other fresh fruit. Decorated with granulated sugar, the cobbler is then baked in the oven until golden and bubbling. When cooled and cut, it brings to mind a slice of deep-dish pie that lacks a bottom crust.

Of the three, it’s the crumble that most resembles my fruit offering. Reputedly invented during WW II, it features a simple pastry of flour, sugar and butter. After mixing the ingredients together, they are spooned over apples and baked. As the crumble cooks, the butter melts into the flour and sugar to form a loose, crumbly covering. Hence the name crumble.

Like the crumble, the crisp’s name is derived from its crust. Made a mixture of flour, oatmeal, brown sugar and butter and spiced with cinnamon and sometimes ginger or nutmeg, the topping becomes crisp and brown when baked. Depending on the time of day and diner’s preference, the crisp either gets topped with scoops of ice cream or caps off a bowl of yogurt.

Whether you opt for a crisp, crumble, cobbler or slump, you’re destined for a delectable dessert, one that you’ll end up making — and eating — again and again.

PEACH CRISP
Serves 6 to 8

Note: To turn this into a blueberry crisp, replace the 6 peaches with 5 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries.

butter, for greasing an 8″ x 8″ baking dish
6 peaches, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Layer the peaches in the greased, 8″ x 8″ glass or ceramic baking dish and sprinkle them with lemon juice.

Place the brown sugar, rolled oats, flour, cinnamon and butter in a medium-sized bowl. Using either a fork or your fingers, mix or squish the ingredients together until well-blended. Place the topping over the peaches, covering them completely. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the crisp is golden brown and bubbling. Remove, cool slightly and serve either with plain yogurt or peach ice cream.