-I'm Mary Beth Albright with the Washington Post,
and between remote learning classes,
my 12-year-old son made this rubber-band ball.
-Mom. -Yes?
-It was during. It wasn't in between.
-It was during? !
-Okay, I have to go upstairs.
Can I have it? -Yeah.
Love you. Have fun.
Maybe you're stress-baking-curious,
but you're a low-commitment cook.
Have I got a dish for you.
This is a frozen berry crisp
that you can really use with almost any fruit.
And there is a huge payoff.
It's warm, bubbly, caramelized fruit
basically with an oatmeal cookie on top.
This is my kind of baking because it's inexact.
You don't have to get it perfect,
and there's a lot of different ways to riff on it.
You can use a lot of different kinds of frozen fruit.
If you don't have flour in the house, don't worry about it.
You do you.
You do your crisp.
And what I love about this recipe, too,
is that it's made with whole grains and honey.
So there's no artificial sugar in here.
First, set your oven to 350.
Next, get a small oven-proof container.
I'm going to use this small cast-iron skillet
'cause I love the way it looks, but you can pretty much use
any small oven-proof container you have around the house.
My Italian peasant ancestors did not have a ton
of different sizes of pans and pots.
You'll be fine.
A lot of people have frozen fruit
just kicking around in the freezer anyway
from that time when you were sure
you were gonna do a juice cleanse this time.
Any kind of fruit works.
You can even do a variety.
But I usually put about 5 cups in.
Look what I found kicking around in the freezer, too.
Some mixed berries.
So I'm gonna throw some mixed berries in.
This is what I'm saying.
Just whatever you got around is great.
Now, a couple of things that I really love about
using frozen berries is,
first of all, obviously, they're just in the freezer.
You can just pull them out.
Second, they're already these little bits of deliciousness,
and so, they fall all over the plate,
so you don't have to worry when you cut
into your crisp for it to be,
"Oh, my gosh, this looks so messy!"
It's like, "No, it's supposed to look messy.
It's berries. They're all over the place."
I have a lemon in the house, so I'm gonna squeeze the lemon
over the berries to, like, brighten the flavors.
But you don't really have to do anything to them.
Now you take a bowl.
See, it's so easy so far.
We can do this together.
So, were just going to start with a cup
and a half of rolled oats.
And then I put in about 1/2 cup of flour.
I usually use whole wheat flour in this,
so it's all whole grain.
Today I only have white flour, and I'm grateful for that.
So we're gonna put that in.
And if you can't find flour, just leave it out.
Don't worry about it.
And a teaspoon of cinnamon.
This gives the cookie a little more personality.
Okay, just stir that to combine it.
You honestly don't even need the spoon
because here's the best part of this.
We're gonna do the rest of it with our fingers.
Like, you just get into the bowl with your fingers,
and it just feels right.
So, now I'm gonna do about 6 tablespoons
of unsalted, softened butter.
This by itself is going to reduce your anxiety.
You just pinch the softened butter
together with the dry ingredients.
And you can do this as long as you want.
There are no knives involved or mixers,
so this is perfect for a kid.
Okay, now, with these sticky hands,
I'm going to pour in about 1/3 cup of honey.
Look, I could take all the yummy crumbles
off of my hands right now, but I'm not going to
'cause it's not the way I cook, and we're gonna be authentic.
So, we've added 1/3 cup of honey,
and now we're going to pinch it together again.
Now we're going to put this mixture
right on top of the berries.
You can just smush it on if you want,
but I sort of like taking the time right now.
If you have some flaky salt around the house,
put that on top.
Not a ton, but honestly, that sweet, salty flavor
of a dessert, ohh, that makes it.
And it gives it a little added texture, too.
Just a little.
Do it from a height so that it sprinkles a little more evenly.
Now all you got to do --
pop it in the oven for 40 minutes.
Oh, my God.
You should really let your crisp sit for 20 or 30 minutes
so it can kind of gel together.
Gets a little messy otherwise.
But I can't wait.
I am ready for this.
And because it's fruit and oatmeal,
that can be breakfast, right?
Mmm!
Warm fruit with an oatmeal cookie on top?
I'm in.
You know what?
I think this spoon is the right spoon!
We're not messing around here.