Plums are one of my favorite summer fruits. With the combination of sweet and tart, they make a great snack right off the tree, but are also perfect for cooking and baking. Make this delicious and easy oatmeal plum crisp, perfectly paired with homemade vanilla ice cream, as the quintessential summer dessert.
Homemade Easy Oatmeal Plum Crisp
When making desserts, plums are an ideal option. Their skin is very tart, and the flesh of the fruit is extremely sweet. They make an awesome flavor combo in any dish and I love cooking with them. They are available everywhere late in the summer, and make the season that much better.
What You’ll Need
Crisps are simple to make, but they rely heavily on using fresh, and ripe fruit. The plums should be ripe and delicious. The better quality the fruit, the better the crisp will taste.
For this recipe, I used a white CorningWare 1.5qt casserole dish, perfect for baking all kinds of dishes. You’ll also need some mixing bowls to get your ingredients put together before baking.
What you need for the filling:
- Plums – the type of plum doesn’t matter much, although for this recipe, I used friar plums, but I have also used Italian plums in the past.
- Ground Cinnamon – just a touch, it brings out the flavors in the plums.
- Organic Cane Sugar – you can substitute brown sugar for this recipe, but I prefer white sugar in the filling.
- Vanilla Extract – adds a depth of flavor to this dessert
- Flour – This will help thicken the juices from the plums as they cook
What you need for the topping:
- Rolled Oats – I love using oats for crisps, they just turn out better than only using flour and sugar.
- Brown sugar– You can substitute white sugar, but brown sugar adds extra depth to the recipe.
- Flour – Just a tad, to help make sure everything “sticks” together.
- Unsalted Butter – because butter makes everything taste better!
- Salt – to balance out the flavor.
Tips for Making this Dessert
For this recipe I used friar plums, they have a dark, tart skin which makes the final product a very dark purple. Different plums will give you a different look and taste. Try this out with your favorite variety and find what works for you!
Don’t forget the salt! The combination of sweet and savory is one of the things that makes this dish so special. Add salt in the topping, or just use salted butter.
Chop up your plums before adding them to the dish. Keep the skins on the plums, plum skins can be annoying if the plum pieces are too large. However, if you skin the plums, you lose that wonderful tartness that the skins add to the dish.
Enjoying This Recipe
Freshly baked oatmeal plum crisp is perfect, served hot, with hand churned vanilla ice cream. It’s a great accompaniment to your outdoor get togethers.
This warm recipe can also be baked during the winter by using canned plums. The warm flavor of cinnamon, right out of the hot oven is sure to warm you up on a cold night.
Add a touch of ground cloves and nutmeg to the filling for a spiced flavor fitting for the holiday season!
WANT MORE BAKING IDEAS? Be sure to check out this delicious Dutch Apple Pie Recipe. You may also enjoy this classic Spiced Pumpkin Pie Recipe.
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Oatmeal Plum Crisp
Tart and sweet, this oatmeal plum crisp is made with freshly chopped plums and a crispy crust that is just so delicious, especially with freshly churned ice cream!
Ingredients
Filling
- 2 lbs fresh plums pitted and chopped
- ⅓ cup organic cane sugar
- 1 tbsp flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Topping
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup flour
- ½ cup butter chilled and cubed
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 350 °F
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Pit and chop 2 lbs of fresh plums (about 12-16), and add to a medium sized bowl.
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Pour in ⅓ cup of organic cane sugar, 1 tbsp of flour, cinnamon and vanilla extract, and mix until the plums are coated and all ingredients are combined. Pour filling into a medium sized baking or casserole dish.
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In a separate bowl, combine the rolled oats, brown sugar, ¼ cup flour, salt.
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Cut in butter until coarse crumbs form.
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Sprinkle the coarse oat crumb mixture over the plum filling.
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Bake the dessert for 45 minutes, or until the filling is bubbling and the oat crumb crust has browned.
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Once removed from the oven, allow the oatmeal plumb crisp to cool a bit before serving. Enjoy!
Trish says
Delicious recipe. Thank you!