Nat’s Peach Pit Crisp

9/02/10 – It’s 90210 day and I’m celebrating with a recipe for Nat’s Peach Pit Crisp – named after the famous 90210 hangout,  The Peach Pit Diner. Yep, just made that name up. Remember Peach Pit After Dark?

The truth is, I actually found Anne Burrell’s recipe on the Food Network website for Peach Crisp. I omitted a few items and increased some of the ingredients and renamed it for the purpose of celebrating the day.

I can’t even begin to explain how obsessed I was with 90210 back when it first aired in 1990. How crazy, 20 years, really? Wow… I taped every episode on the family VCR and I color coded each VHS cassette. I had pins, stickers, trading cards, magazine articles, posters, and most importantly… the FREAKIN’ DOLLS. I had all of the dolls and multiple outfits for each – I still have the boxes and the outfits are sealed in the original packaging and worth about $1.50, hah!

Check out Kelly and Donna hangin’ out on my peaches. “Donna Martin Graduates” – You know you’re jealous… Brandon looks a little possessed, but Brenda sure is rockin’ her Blossom hat. I can’t forget good ol’ Dylan McKay – with his eyebrow scar. Bad boy central.

The Ingredients:

For the Filling
6 Large Ripe Peaches – pitted, peeled and cut into chunks
1 Lemon – zested and juiced
3 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar – tightly packed
2 Tablespoons Sugar – because the brown wasn’t enough 😉
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Pinch of Kosher Salt

For the Topping
1 1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Rolled Oats
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 1/4 Stick Cold Unsalted Butter – cut into pea sized pieces
Pinch of Kosher Salt
2 Tablespoons Cold Water

Set your oven to 350 degrees F and then prep your peaches – peel and cut into chunks and place into a large bowl.

Add the lemon zest and lemon juice and toss.

Add the rest of the filling ingredients and stir to combine.

Divide the filling evenly between 8 (6 ounce) ramekins.

For the topping… combine all of the ingredients in a bowl (except for the water) and mix with your hands. I really made sure that the pieces of butter were evenly dispersed. After a minute or two of mixing, gradually add the 2 tablespoons of water until the mixture is clumpy, but still crumbly.

Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and top each ramekin with the topping. Be sure to loosely sprinkle the topping  – you don’t want to pack it down. The idea is for it to be a loose crumble. Bake until the filling is hot and bubbly and the topping is brown and crispy. The original recipe said 20-25 minutes – mine easily took 35-40 minutes.

I added a scoop of vanilla ice cream and was good to go.

I had fun looking through all of my old trading cards…

And then I dove right in… It was awesome! Dan and I both gobbled it down. 6 more to enjoy…think I’ll be giving some away.

Happy 90210 Day!

P.S. – For all of you original 90210 fans – who was your favorite character?