This is a perfect summer dessert, with a crisp topping and a layer of juicy peaches that create their own sauce during baking. It's sweet, fresh, and one of the easiest fruit bakes to take advantage of peach season. Serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and make it irresistible.
Quick and easy
The beauty of this easy peach dessert is that it creates its own sauce as it bakes when the cornstarch mixes with the peach juices. Together with the crumb topping, it's an easy dessert recipe that you'll want to make over and over again. I know we do.
Together with the peach cobbler recipe, this crisp is my favorite way to use fresh peaches when they hit the grocery store or the open market.
Testing Notes
Fruit-to-topping ratio. You can adjust the proportions, but don't overdo it either way. Too much crumble mixture will make it pasty, and too much fruit will dull the crunch factor.
Use juicy, just‑ripe peaches with full flavor. Overripe ones don't hold well and can be mushy when baked; underripe ones can taste bland. A great recipe starts with great ingredients, and it makes a difference.
Peach skins: I peel the peaches (very easy!) if the skin is thick or fuzzy; peak‑season peaches rarely need it, so I leave it on. Do what works for you. Nectarines are an easy swap with their thin skin.
Simpler syrup and filling: You can use only 5 ingredients if you choose to leave out the spices, cornstarch, and lemon. Sweet and straightforward, it'd still be a very delicious crumble. I baked it several times this way in circumstances when I had few things available, and it was still amazing.
Ingredient Notes
Quantities are listed in the recipe card toward the end of this post. The Ingredients page has more details and lists the brands I use.
- Peaches: Fresh fruit is the way to go. Don't use overly ripe peaches, as they will not hold their shape very well after baking. You can use frozen peaches or canned peach halves if not in season.
- Oats: I use traditional or rolled oats as they have a better texture and crispness. But instant or quick oats also work well.
- Brown sugar: it goes so well with the peaches! But you can use white sugar if that's all you have. It won't have that caramel tone, but it'll still be a fantastic dessert.
- Cornstarch: It's used as a thickener.
- Lemon juice: adds some acid to balance out the sugar and butter. Fresh is much better than bottled.
- Spices: I love a pinch of ground cinnamon and ground ginger, maybe a smidge of nutmeg. And I mean just a pinch, so the peach flavor shines.
Peach mixture
- Fruit: I like peach slices that are not very large because they're hard to eat. Remember, you will only use a spoon and a bowl to eat it. Hopefully. But if you serve it on a plate with a spoon and fork, the peach pieces can be bigger.
- Mixing: The fruit is combined with the rest of the filling ingredients, and I do this directly in the baking dish. No need to wash an extra bowl. But you can mix it all in a separate large bowl and dump it in the dish afterward.
Crumble topping
It's super easy to make and can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for a few weeks or frozen for a month or more.
- Butter: This recipe uses cold butter cut into small pieces, the old-fashioned way. You can also stir melted butter into the dry ingredients for an even quicker crumble mixture. Both ways of making it are in the recipe card.
- Mixing: I use a medium bowl and my hands or a pastry cutter. But you can also use the processor (it's great when making a large batch), but don't process the oats from the beginning, or they will be pulverized. Add them at the last moment and pulse once or twice to mix.
- The final mixture is rustic and coarse, with clumps here and there.
Assembling the dessert
There's not much work at this point.
- Distribute the peach filling and top with the crumble. Don't cover the top of the peaches completely; leave some space at the edges. This is the best way to ensure proper baking of both layers, as the fruit juices can bubble up.
- Baking dish: Use a round, square, glass or ceramic dish you want to take to the table. Remember that you'll serve this fruit crumble recipe directly from it. This recipe makes a 9-inch dessert but can be adjusted to a bigger or smaller dish.
Kitchen notes
- Organization: always read the recipe first and make sure you have all the ingredients, at the right temperatures, and also the rest of the equipment and space to make it. This will make the process so much easier!
- Baking time: Keep in mind that all ovens and pans are different, even if they look the same or very similar. The baking time in my recipes is as accurate as it can be, but it might take you more or less time. Use a thermometer inside the oven (like the OXO oven thermometer) to check that the temperature is right. I recommend you keep track of how your oven works and what tiny details you might need to adjust.
- Serving it: we love it, and serve it, either warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or plain at room temperature.
- Variations: You can add some lemon zest (together with the lemon juice) to the filling if you want a sharper lemon tone. Or use orange zest and juice instead, as they go very well with peaches and spices. Add some chopped pecans or walnuts to the streusel-like topping mixture for a crunchy crumble.
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Peach Crisp (easy, with oats)
Ingredients
For the fruit layer:
- 6 cups sliced peaches, with or without skins
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch of ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
For the crumble topping:
- 1 cup rolled or old-fashioned oats
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup light or dark brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup unsalted butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
For the fruit layer:
- Spread 6 cups sliced peaches in a 9-inch round or square baking dish that can go into the oven. I use ceramic or glass because they are pretty enough to serve this dessert directly from them.
- Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon and a pinch of ground ginger on top.
- Dissolve 2 teaspoons cornstarch in 2 tablespoons lemon juice and add ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract. Drizzle over the fruit, and stir it right in the dish. It will not be uniformly mixed, and that is fine.
For the topping;
- Combine 1 cup rolled or old-fashioned oats, ¾ cup all-purpose flour and ¾ cup light or dark brown sugar in a medium or large bowl.
- Add ½ cup unsalted butter, cold and in pieces, and integrate them using your hands or a pastry cutter. You'll have a coarse, rustic mixture with different sizes of butter pieces.
- Sprinkle this mixture on the peaches, leaving a little space around the edges so the juices can bubble up. You can lightly press it down to make it more compact.
- Bake for about 40 minutes, until the top is golden and the fruit is bubbling. Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream, or plain at room temperature.
Raymond Kopp says
thanks Paula every recipe brings back happy and sad memories.I tried this w/bluesberries and limoncello .to pass a final in baking class.(happy....Got a B+.).. (sad ....teacher said he was expecting something more technical from me. ) Oh well simplicity never fails.thanks again Paula
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Paula Montenegro says
Hey Raymond! Happy to hear you passed that final with this recipe, even though it was simple. I do love simplicity also. Have a great week.
angiesrecipes says
my husband can't get enough of sweet juicy peaches at this time of the year..this is a beautiful and delicious summer dessert and I love nofuss preparation.
Paula Montenegro says
Oh, it's a wonderful dessert Angie!