"Navajo-Style" Peach Crisp (Vegan Friendly)

Submitted by COOKGIRl

"From Hell's Backbone Grill in Boulder, Utah (Population 180) via Delicious Living. This recipe was taught to Chef Black Spalding by a Navajo family living in Arizona's Canyon de Chelley. I reduced the recipe yield by three quarters and used one yellow fleshed nectarine and one white fleshed. I baked the crisp in a 6" round ovenproof mini-pie plate. To make this recipe vegan, substitute a suitable ingredient for the butter. If desired, the peach crisp can be served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of real whipped cream."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 8

ingredients

• Filling

• 7 cups fresh peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced (approximately 10-12 peaches)
• 1⁄2 cup natural cane sugar (I used half cane sugar and half dark brown sugar)
• 1⁄4 cup unbleached flour
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• Topping

• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 2⁄3 cup finely ground yellow cornmeal
• 1⁄2 cup natural cane sugar
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 cup butter (very cold and cut into small pieces)
• 1⁄2 cup pine nuts

directions

1. Preheat oven to 375?.
2. Butter or oil an 11x17-inch baking dish.
3. Filling: In a medium bowl, combine peaches, sugar(s), flour, and lemon juice.
4. Spread fruit mixture evenly in baking dish; set aside.
5. Topping: In a medium bowl, mix together flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt. Use a pastry blender to work the butter pieces into the dry ingredients so the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
6. Cover fruit evenly with topping.
7. Set the baking dish on a baking sheet to catch any juices that spill over.
8. Bake until fruit is bubbling, the peaches are fork tender and topping is golden in color, about 45 minutes. *Add* the pine nuts to the top of the crisp the final 5-10 minutes of baking.

Reviews

[Tansysmom]

Don't you just hate it when you follow a recipe as it's written and it doesn't turn out? Somewhere between the cooking time, the amount of flour to thicken the peaches, and the cornmeal, things went badly awry. For one thing, "7 cups of sliced peaches" is a terribly inaccurate way to measure sliced peaches. It might work for other fruit, but peaches are too juicy. Also, 45 minutes in my oven wasn't nearly enough baking time. I gave it an extra 10 minutes and even that wasn't enough. The top part bubbled and it looked done, but the underneath was soup. Okay, not great but still edible...except for the fact that the yellow cornmeal makes the topping really, REALLY gritty. My family and I didn't like it at all. I have a hunch any self-respecting Navajo wouldn't like it either. In other words, there are better cobbler recipes out there. Don't waste your time on this one.<br/><br/>NOTE: After posting this comment, I would like to add that the recipe I used was printed in Relish magazine, which is an insert in my daily newspaper. In comparing the Relish recipe with this one, I see that there are differences. Specifically, the Relish recipe calls for more butter and sugar (too much, really), and it does not specify the use of finely ground yellow cornmeal, which, in itself, would make a huge difference. I have no idea which of these recipes is the original one from Hell's Backbone Grill and which is the imposter. Maybe they are both imposters. However, my years of baking experience tell me the recipe printed on this website is closer to the real deal than the Relish recipe with the same name.