Published July 1, 2006.
Soggy topping and flavorless filling are the norm for this simple dessert. How do you make crumble crisp and the peaches actually taste like, well, peaches?
The problem with peach crumble is the peaches. You never know just how juicy or how flavorful they will be until you cut them open.
Peach crumble should consist of fresh-tasting, lightly sweetened peaches topped with a buttery, crisp, and nutty-tasting crumble--no matter how sweet the peaches are (or aren't).
Solving the peach problem involved letting peeled, sliced peaches macerate in sugar for half an hour before draining them and measuring out the amount of peach juice that would be added back to the filling: always 1/4 cup. The sweetness of the filling was adjusted by adding more or less lemon juice to the filling as needed. Now one challenge remained: Getting a crisp, well-browned topping required too much oven time for the peaches, which turned to mush. The answer? Cook the topping separately and then marry it to the filling, baking the combination just until the fruit bubbles around the edges.
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