The Easy Ina Garten Dessert that Snagged Me a Husband

I made it on our very first date 15 years ago.

Simply Recipes / Getty Images / Laurel Randolph

My first date with my now-husband was a bit unconventional. He lived in Los Angeles, and I lived in Brooklyn, and our first in-person meetup was at my apartment in NYC. His cross-country flight was delayed, and I had so much nervous energy that I made a plum crunch pie. I served him a warm slice when he arrived, and the rest is history (15 years together and 13 years of marriage).

The pie was an adaptation of a tried-and-true Ina Garten recipe, and I’ve made it a million times and a million different ways since. The Plum Crunch, featured in her 2008 book Back to Basics, is basically a big fancy fruit crisp. It’s delicious as-is, but I’ve adapted it over the years to accommodate different fruits, different diets, different serving sizes, and more.

The best thing about the recipe? It works every single time.

This dessert is so easy to make, but tastes complicated and looks deliciously rustic. The filling is fruity and sweet, while the topping is buttery and wonderfully crisp. It’s a winner every time (just ask my husband). Grab whatever fruit you have on hand and make your whole house smell incredible.

Simply Recipes / Laurel Randolph

How I Make Ina Garten’s Plum Crunch

I’ll be honest, I rarely make the recipe as written anymore. The results are obviously delicious, but I don’t often have Italian prune plums or crème de cassis on hand, and I find the filling too sweet. Luckily, it’s super easy to adapt.

My favorite way to make it is with a mix of nectarines and plums or apples and pears for a wonderful fall dessert. Replace the fruit pound-for-pound (I sometimes add a bit of extra fruit, and it doesn’t hurt anything), slicing stone fruit one-half inch thick (no need to peel) and slicing peeled, cored apples one-quarter inch thick. If you’re gluten-free, replace the flour in the filling with cornstarch and the flour in the topping with the same amount of gluten-free flour. No one will ever know.

For the perfect amount of sweetness, I use half a cup of sugar in the filling instead of the recommended one and a half cups. The crème de cassis can be left out, or you can swap it for a tablespoon or two of lemon juice, Calvados (for apples), or even bourbon or rum. And if you don’t like or can’t eat the walnuts in the crust, replace them with another nut or simply leave them out.

This recipe makes a nice big 9x13 fruit crisp, but it’s easy to halve the recipe and bake in an 8x8, 9x9, or similarly sized casserole dish.

Simply Recipes / Laurel Randolph

Other Ways to Use the Topping

Let’s be real: The best part of this dessert is the topping. I find it perfectly crisp, buttery, and sweet, and I use it for lots of things:

• A half recipe is the ideal amount for topping a pie. I love an apple or berry pie with a crumble topping, and a plum crunch pie (with a butter crust) is always a winner.
• Use the topping on bars, especially fruity ones, like raspberry.
• Simply spread out the topping on a lined baking sheet and bake it until browned and crisp, then use it to top fresh fruit, yogurt, ice cream, and more.

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