My Dad’s mother, whom we called “Grandmom,” was smart, thrifty and always imaginative… It’s still the stuff of Parker family legend that once she made a party dress out of a trash bag and then wowed the crowd at the yacht club dance with her ingenious creation! She was the only person who would stay up late and watch horror movies with me– Stephen King’s Carrie was our favorite.
As a little girl, I loved riding on the back of her bike and going to Bay Village on Long Beach Island to a bakery for Elephant Ears. It was a treat I relished— and one-on-one time with Grandmom was priceless. She never enjoyed cooking the way my other grandmother did— but she had one dish that was an absolute show stopper: Blueberry Crisp. This is modified from her recipe to use peaches, but combining some blueberries in there would be divine! This just TASTES like summer. There’s nothing like a bite of warm, melt-in-your-mouth peaches with a crispy, sweet crust. Grandmom would be proud.
Ingredients
- 6 peaches (peeled and pitted)
- ½ lemon zested
- Juice from ½ lemon
- 1 Tb brandy
- Pinch kosher salt
- 1 cup white sugar (plus ¼ cup for peach mixture)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (plus 2 Tb flour for peach mixture)
- 2 sticks butter cut into pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the inside of a casserole dish.
- Put peaches in a bowl and combine ¼ cup with sugar, brandy, lemon zest, lemon juice, 2 Tb flour and kosher salt. Toss well. Pour the peaches into the baking dish.
- Combine 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 ½ cup flour and 2 sticks of butter in the food processor with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle evenly on top of peaches bake for one hour until top is browned and juices are bubbly. Serve immediately!