Cassis Crisp

By corlear

As a guide, I always do as I encourage my cyclists to do and therefore never leave Burgundy without a good supply of Domaine Lucien Jacob’s fabulous cassis in protective tow. After sipping a surfeit of kirs, my thoughts inevitably turn to creative cassis cookery with cues frequently directed by the flavors professional wine tasters mention when describing Burgundy wines. Such is the way that subtle blueberry; raspberry, and strawberry undertones of Côtes de Nuits reds became transformed into cassis-enriched reality in this most comforting of warm desserts.

To impart an essentially American-style fruit cobbler with a bit more French flair, I replaced the traditional crumbly, nut-studded topping with a more sophisticated lemon-laced sugar-cookie crust. French vanilla ice cream, of course, would be a welcome and appropriate embellishment.

Ingredients

• Cookie Crust:
• 1 quart fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
• 1 pint fresh or frozen whole unsweetened blueberries
• 1 pint fresh or frozen whole unsweetened raspberries
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cassis
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• l egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt

Details

Servings 8

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

2. Combine all the berries, sugar, flour, and cassis in a large bowl, then spread it evenly into a 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Set aside.

3. Make the cookie crust: In a medium-size bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and lemon zest. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt over the creamed mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon to incorporate the flour and make a semistiff cookie type of batter.

4. Drop the cookie topping by tablespoonsful evenly over the top of the berry filling.

5. Bake the crisp until the top is light golden brown and the berry filling is bubbling, 45 to 50 minutes. Let the crisp cool for at least 15 minutes and serve it warm, with vanilla ice cream on top, if desired.