Peach Berry Crisp (Topping)

What I should do is follow The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook and make a lightly sweetened, healthier topping for my Peach Berry Crisp Filling. But, I don't.

Here is what I do instead--based on this Summer Fruit Crisp Recipe:

For an 8 x 8 size pan:

• 3/4 cups flour (I use winter white whole wheat)
• 1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 3 Tablespoons sugar (or sweetener of choice)
• pinch of salt
• 5 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans or more to taste

Combine flour, sugars, and salt. Add cold butter chunks and blend into the mixture with a pastry blender, add vanilla extract and nuts. After adding the nuts, I just use my hand to further blend the mixture, which will be sandy and chunky.

After blending for about 30 seconds (it will still be not fully mixed) sprinkle handfuls of the mixture over your Peach Berry Crisp Filling, breaking up the larger buttery lumps. (If you are freezing the crisp topping, put the mixture in a quart-size freezer bag and freeze.) Empty the remaining flour and sugar over top of filling, covering fruit mixture evenly.

I tripled this recipe so that I could freeze two portions of topping to use on future fresh fruit crisps. I'm hoping for some nice peaches and raspberries at the produce stands on the way to the beach in a few days!

Bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Serve warm over ice cream OR a healthier choice would be fat-free plain or vanilla yogurt. I've been enjoying Trader Joe's fat-free vanilla Greek yogurt with it for breakfast. You could dust the top with powdered sugar, but I consider that to be overkill. :)

Linked to Ultimate Recipe Swap!