Super Crispy Fruit Crisp

There's an unspoken rule about homemade fruit crisps. Although everyone really wants more topping and less fruit, you just cannot succumb. You make the crisp as instructed, with just enough topping to cover the fruit.

When no one is looking, you might pick off a bit of the topping as you let the crisp cool on the counter (you are, after all, the maker of the crisp). When you help yourself to a piece, you might accidentally take a chunk of topping off the next person's slice.

But you would never make the crisp with extra topping, now, would you?

Well, just in case you would consider committing such a heinous crime, and just in case you don't have a very  clever  eight-year-old son (who has just finished learning fractions at school) to suggest that you make 1/3 more topping, I am providing a recipe here for a topping that will knock your socks off. It is crunchy. It is nutty. And it is plentiful. There will be lots to go around. You'll stop lurking around the kitchen when no one is looking, picking bits off the corners and sides. You'll stop yelling at your kids like a crazy person when you see them picking bits off the corners and sides. (Not that you would ever do those things, but I'm just saying.)

Super Crispy Fruit Crisp

This recipe makes enough topping for three crisps. I divide it in three parts, use one part immediately, and freeze the other two-thirds for another time. My current favorite combination of fruit is 3 granny smith apples, 2 pears, 2 peeled plums, and 1 cup frozen blueberries. But that'll change as the seasons do. In the summer, I can't get enough of fresh peach and blueberry crisp. Use whatever fruit you like. 

Fruit (enough for ONE crisp):

about 6 cups of your favorite fruit, pitted, peeled and sliced as necessary
2 tablespoons flour
juice of half a lemon
1-2 tablespoons sugar, optional, if the fruit is tart or if you like a sweeter crisp

Topping (enough for THREE crisps):

4 sticks margarine

4 cups brown sugar
2 cups oatmeal
2 cups flour
2 cups pecans, broken into small but not tiny pieces

Preheat the oven to 350*.

Combine the prepared fruit, lemon juice, flour and salt in a Pyrex pie plate. Mix well. (Here's my favorite on Amazon.)

In a very large mixing bowl, combine the margarine, brown sugar, oatmeal, flour and nuts. Crumble the mixture with your fingers to make a coarse crumb. (This is my favorite part. I love how the grainy sugar feels against my hands.) 

Divide the topping into three parts. Use one part now, and freeze two parts for later. (When you're ready to use a frozen batch, just defrost it enough to soften (maybe 1/2 hour on the counter) and then continue with the rest of this recipe just as you would with fresh topping.) 

Scatter the part you are using now evenly over the fruit. Bake for about an hour, till the top is beginning to brown.

Serve warm or cool completely before covering with foil and refrigerating for up to three days. If you are refrigerating it, bring it back to room temperature before serving.