Summer Fruit Desserts

Fruit Cobblers, Crisps, Slumps, and More: Easy Summer Desserts

Breaking down the differences between popular classic rustic summer fruit desserts, from crisps and slumps to buckles and cobblers.

Posie Harwood

Cobbler refers to a variety of dishes, particularly in the United Kingdom and United States, consisting of a fruit or savoury filling poured into a large baking dish and covered with a batter, biscuit, or scone (in England) before being baked. Some cobbler recipes, especially in the American South, resemble a thick-crusted, deep-dish pie with both a top and bottom crust.

Apple crisp (name used in the United States and Canada) or apple crumble (name preferred in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand) is a dessert consisting of baked chopped apples, topped with a crisp streusel crust. Ingredients usually include cooked apples, butter, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and often oats and brown sugar, ginger, and/or nutmeg. One of the most common variants is apple rhubarb crisp, in which the rhubarb provides a tart contrast to the apples. Many other kinds of fruit crisps are made. These may substitute other fruits, such as peaches, berries, or pears, for the apples.

A crumble, also known as a brown betty, is a dish of British origin that can be made in a sweet or savoury version, depending on ingredients used, although the sweet version is much more common. A sweet variety usually contains stewed fruit topped with a crumbly mixture of fat (usually butter), flour, and sugar. A savoury version uses meat, vegetables and a sauce for the filling, with cheese replacing sugar in the crumble mix. The crumble is baked in an oven until the topping is crisp. The dessert variety is often served with custard, cream or ice cream as a hearty, warm dessert after a meal. The savoury variety can be served with accompanying vegetables.