Individual Fruit Crisps: the Perfect Fast, Easy Barbecue Party Dessert

This is a short-cut dessert that I would be happy to eat every day of the week. The short-cut doesn’t rely on dastardly highly processed food trickery: instead of making a crisp topping, I use granola. It’s been done a million times before, but here are the two keys to making it work really, deliciously well: 1. love your granola (and don’t use one with lots of dried fruit in it) 2. Top the fruit with the granola only after the filling is cooked until it is thick and bubbly. And spritz the top lightly with cooking spray before you cook it those final few minutes. That’s it. Done. Easier than it tastes.

I used Purely Elizabeth Ancient Grain Granola (which happens to be gluten free): I sampled it at a press event held prior to and in conjunction with the Fancy Food Show (which opens tomorrow in New York City) and couldn’t stop eating it.

Speaking of eating endlessly, just after the recipe, check out my video clips and a few other newsy tidbits.

Individual Berry Crisps

1 pound strawberries, quartered

1 pint blueberries

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup granola

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 4 (1-cup) ramekins with cooking spray. Line a small sheet pan with foil.

2. Combine strawberries, blueberries, cornstarch and sugar in bowl; toss thoroughly. Spoon into prepared ramekins and bake on sheet pan until filling is bubbly and thickened. Remove from oven; top each ramekin with 2 tablespoons granola. Spray granola with cooking spray and return to oven for 5 minutes, or until granola is hot and toasted. Makes 4 servings.

Nutritional analysis for each serving 209 calories, 4 g protein, 53 g carbohydrates, 4 g fiber, 1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 3mg sodium

Now for the newsy tidbits:

* I am a finalist in the Association of Food Journalists award category for Best Personal Essay for my column, Strawberry Frosted Cupcakes: A Valentine. It is a double honor: first, that a jury of editors and writers would choose my piece feels great, but also, I get choked up every time I think about how this honors my mother’s memory. Man, oh man, she would have loved this.

* The blog post I wrote about my mother’s strawberry frosted cupcakes was chosen to be included in an anthology about food called Roots: Where Food Comes From and Where It Takes Us. I am thrilled to be included in a book with so many wonderful writers, including David Leite, Michael Procopio , Donna Pierce and others.

* I’ve had a couple of recent appearances on QVC for cookbooks. Wait until you see how the wonderful, gregarious host, David Venable, can put away food– and never skip a beat! (And he is as smart and savvy as he is fun.) Here is my most recent appearance for the wonderful Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. That Blueberry Buckle recipe is as fabulous as it looks, by the way.

*Thinking of taking a food-themed road trip this summer? Take a look at my ten page story in the June issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray, or see it online here. You can explore the chocolate trail in the Hudson Valley, cheese in Wisconsin, olive oil in California, hot tamales (and blues!) along the Mississippi delta and cherries in Michigan.

* Or, if you’re planning a picnic, make it a healthy one with easy, fun and fast recipes in the July issue of Self Magazine. You’ll find my recipes for Chopped Chicken Caesar Sandwiches, Tomato and Corn Salad, Sweet and Spicy Peanut Noodles, Feta Stuffed Watermelon Blocks, Peach Berry Sangria and S’more Bites (pages 112-115). (Or, see page 66 for an uber-easy Chicken and Vegetable Kebab.)

Are you looking for other fruit crisp recipes? Check these out:

Mixed Fruit Crisp (Peach, Strawberry and Blueberry)

Blueberry Crisp

Apple Plum Crisp

And for those of you who wonder about the difference between a cobbler, crisp, crumble, slump and buckle, my Ask the Expert column on MyRecipes.com has the answer.

Last item in today’s post: I’ll be “hunting” the Fancy Food show for a few of my magazines tomorrow. Is there a food product you want me to be on the look-out for? A great new yogurt, gluten free bagel, nutrient-rich snack? Let me know…