fruit dessert differences as I have found them

[Mogorilla]

The Betty, Buckle, Grunt, Pandowdy, Slump, Cobbler and the Other 3 Cs  Just What Are the Differences Between These Fruited Desserts?

   At my work, I am known as a cook, but as a chemist, cooking is easy chemistry.  I am also known as a weird history buff, so I do on occasion get questions that relate to both.  I am famous for pies and cobblers, so I often get questions relating to this.  What is a Buckle? How is a Crisp different from a Cobbler? Is a Grunt named for the noise made while being eaten? What's a Pandowdy and how is it different from a Betty? What about a Crumble and a Clafouti? How about Slumps, how are they different from the rest? Which ones are baked and which ones are boiled? To make matters even worse, some recipes are called one thing (like cobbler), but are really another (like a crisp). I hope I can help alleviate some of the stress in knowing which dessert is which by listing definitions as I have researched them below.  These are recipes I have collected from friends.  If it is in blue, it was my families recipe and will expound. 

Betty
This baked dessert dates back to the colonial times. The most common Betty is the Apple Brown Betty which is made with brown sugar.
A Betty also calls for buttered bread crumbs.

Apple Brown Betty

4 C. fresh hand-torn bread crumbs
1/2 C. butter, melted
----
4 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1/3 C. brown sugar
1 T. fresh lemon juice
1 T. finely chopped fresh ginger or 1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 t. ground cinnamon
----
3 T. dry sherry (optional)
Ice or Whipped cream for serving (optional)

Heat oven to 375° F. Lightly butter a 2-quart casserole or baking dish. Stir together bread crumbs and butter; set aside.
Combine apples, brown sugar, lemon juice, ginger, and cinnamon, mixing until well blended. To assemble brown betty, spread 1 cup of buttered bread crumbs in bottom of casserole; top with one third of apple mixture. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon sherry over apple layer.

Spread another cup bread crumbs and top with half of remaining apples and another tablespoon sherry. Make third layer of one cup of bread crumbs and top with remaining apples and sherry. Spread remaining bread crumbs on top of apples.

Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes; uncover and bake 30 minutes longer.
Buckles

Buckles are baked and are usually made in one or two ways. The first way is that bottom layer is cake-like with the berries mixed in. Then the top layer is crumb-like. The second way is where the cake layer is on the bottom of the pan, the berries are the next layer and the top is the crumble mixture. Blueberry Buckle is the most prevalent Buckle recipe found.

Blueberry Buckle
3/4 C. sugar
1/2 C. butter
1 egg
----
1/2 t. salt
2 C. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 C. milk
----
1 C. blueberries

Topping
1/2 C. brown sugar, packed
1/2 C. flour
1/4 C. butter, softened
2 t. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 9 x 13-inch pan.
Cream the sugar and the butter in a mixer. Add the egg and mix well. Combine the dry ingredients and add them to the sugar mixture, alternating with the milk. Fold in the blueberries and pour the batter into a prepared pan.

Combine all of the topping ingredients, mixing well. Sprinkle over the batter and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.

Clafouti

This is a dessert that originated in the French countryside. It is a dessert that the fruit is topped with either a cake or pudding topping. The Clafouti is often considered a baked pudding.

Black Cherry Clafouti

1 lb. Bing cherries, pitted and halved
Kirsch (cherry liqueur)
4 T. butter, melted and cooled
3/4 C. sugar
1/2 C. flour
1 C. almonds, toasted and finely ground
4 eggs
2/3 C. milk

Put cherries in a bowl and cover with Kirsch.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease shallow 9-inch ceramic baking dish or tart pan.
Mix together sugar, flour, and ground almonds. Beat in butter, eggs, and milk. Drain cherries and put in bottom of pan. Pour batter over cherries. Bake for 30 minutes or until set.


Cobbler

The fruit filling is put in a deep baking dish and topped with a biscuit dough. The dough may completely cover the fruit or it may just be dropped in handfuls. Either way, a cobbler is baked.   (In my family, a cobbler was a sweet pie crust over a fruit bottom, with no bottom crust and always made in a large rectangular pan.)

Apple Cobbler

Crust
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup ice water

Filling
9 apples-peeled, cored and sliced
½ cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons melted butter

For the crust: In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt and sugar. Add the shortening and work it through with your hands until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and work it in with your hands until you have a smooth ball of dough. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured surface. This recipe will make two pie crusts or one cobbler crust. 

For Filling, mix all ingredients together in large bowl.  Pour into a large rectangular pan (11x17)  Gently roll out crust and place over fruit.   Bake at 350º  If desired, paint crust with an egg wash for a fancy appearance, although fancy and cobbler don't go together.
This recipe was my grandmother's (b 1888).  She was married in 1904 and this recipe is handwritten in a recipe book received from an aunt on her wedding day. 



Crumble:

Similar to the Crisp, the topping is crumbled over the fruit filling in the pan. A Crumble is baked.

Blackberry and Apple Crumble
1/2 pound Blackberries
1 pound Apples
1/4 pound Hazel Nuts
6 ounces Whole meal Flour
4 ounces Soft Brown Sugar
4 ounces Butter
Wash and hull Blackberries. Peel, core and thickly slice Apples. Finely chop hazel nuts. Rub together flour and butter and stir in sugar (can all be put in food processor for this) stir in nuts.  Butter shallow casserole dish and layer blackberries and apples (you can add a sprinkle of sugar at this stage but I add a sprig of Sweet Cicely)  Top with Crumble topping and bake in 180 degrees centigrade/Gas mark 4/5 oven for 30 to 40 minutes until top is lightly browned and crisp and fruit is soft.  Serve with fresh cream.


Crisp

In this baked dessert, the fruit filling is covered with a crunchy topping which is crumbled over the top.   In my family, this was like an upside down cobbler, crust on bottom, followed by fruit and topped with crisp.  Like cobbler, always made in 11x17 retangular pan

Bottom Crust
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup ice water

Filling
9 apples peeled, cored and sliced
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons melted butter

Topping/Crisp
Equal parts of the following: brown sugar, butter, flour, oatmeal.  Add cinnamon to taste.

For large pan, 1 cup of each and 2 teaspoons cinnamon

For the crust: In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt and sugar. Add the shortening and work it through with your hands until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and work it in with your hands until you have a smooth ball of dough. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured surface. This recipe will make two pie crusts or one crisp crust.  Gently roll out and place in greased 11x17 pan and chill

For Filling, mix all ingredients together in large bowl.  Pour into a chilled crust.

For topping mix all ingredients together and crumble over fruit.  Bake at 350º  until bubbly
Same grandma, this was written in same book but in her hand.  Don't know when this appeared, but Apple cobblers and crisps as well as blackberry cobblers and crisps appeared at every family gathering.
.   

Grunt:

A Grunt is a stewed or baked fruit dish. The biscuit dough is rolled and put on top of the fruit. The name of Grunt may have come from the noise people made while eating it. Grunts are also known as Slumps.

Blackberry Grunt
3 C. Blackberries
1/3 C. Sugar
1/4 t. Cinnamon
1/4 t. Nutmeg
1/4 t. Ground cloves
1/4 C. Molasses
2 T. Lemon juice
----
1 C. Flour
1-1/2 t. Baking powder
1/2 t. Salt
3 T. Butter; cold
1 T. Vegetable oil
1 Egg; lightly beaten
1/4 C. Milk, divided
1 Egg yolk; for the glaze
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly flour a deep, 9-inch baking pan/casserole.
Combine blackberries with sugar, spices, molasses and lemon juice. Transfer to baking dish. Prepare the biscuit topping: Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt. Cut the butter and oil with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir together egg and 1 tablespoon of the milk, if necessary, to form a soft dough. Roll the dough out lightly on a floured surface to about 1/2-inch thick. Cut as many circles possible with biscuit cutter. Cover berries with dough. Combine rest of milk and egg yolk. Brush over dough. Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes or until golden brown

Pandowdy or Pan Dowdy:

You'll find both spellings in this baked dish. The dough is on top of the fruit and although it is rolled out, it ends up being crumbly.

Apple Pandowdy
3 C. Apples, cored, peeled and sliced
1/4 C. Brown sugar
1 t. Cinnamon
1-1/4 C. Butter
2/3 C. Sugar
1 Egg, beaten
2-1/2 C. flour
3 t. Baking powder
1/2 t. Salt
1 C. Milk


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch square glass pan.
Spread apples in the bottom of pan. Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over apples.
Cream butter and sugar. Add egg. Combine flour, baking powder and salt with wire whisk. Add flour mixture alternately with milk to butter mixture.
Pour batter over the top, spreading evenly. Bake for about 50 minutes. Remove from oven. Let stand for 10 minutes. To serve, invert on serving dish or serve baking pan.