If you have seasonal fruit and a few staples in your pantry, you can always make my favorite rustic dessert: a crisp. When I need a last-minute dessert, fruit crisp is always my go-to. It’s so easy and so delicious. You don’t really need a recipe to make a great fruit crisp. You just need great fruit, a little sweetener, some spice, and plenty of crumbly oatmeal cookie-type topping. I like to use cornstarch or arrowroot powder to slightly thicken up juicy fruits, but if you don’t have these starches on hand, all-purpose flour works fine too. Consider this a blueprint, with ideas for fruit crisps throughout the season, and combine fruits, play with spices, and experiment to find your own perfect crisp.

For the topping:
¾ C. rolled oats
1/2 C. lightly packed light brown sugar
1/2 C. chopped walnuts, pecans, or almonds
1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1/2 C. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at soft room temperature
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Pinch of kosher salt

Filling ingredients (See graphic)
Lightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla
ice cream, for serving (optional)

Move an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-inch-square pan. In a small bowl, combine all the topping ingredients and mix together until it looks uniformly clumpy. Set aside. ^ Choose a filling combination. In a medium bowl, toss the fruit, sweetener, thickener, and extras together, then pour the fruit mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the crisp topping all over the filling, then bake until the fruit juices are thickened and bubbly and the topping is golden brown and crunchy, 40 minutes or up to 1 hour, depending on the fruit. Serve the crisp with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream, if desired. Note: If you use frozen fruit, increase the amount of thickener you use a bit.