Recipe

Cooking from the Bar Cart: Bourbon-Peach Crisp

For a crowd-pleasing summer dessert, it’s hard to go wrong with a brown-butter crumble, peaches, and bourbon

July 25, 2024

A peach crisp in a pan with a bowl of peach crisp and ice cream next to it

Photo: katherine cobbs/BLUELINE CREATIVE GROUP

The sweet caramel and vanilla notes bourbon gets from aging in charred oak barrels make it pretty much a no-brainer for desserts where those rich flavors elevate the other ingredients. Summer’s ripe, juicy, sweet-tart peaches are a prime example. In this bourbon-peach crisp (like a crumble but crunchier with the addition of oats), the flavors only get more pronounced as they concentrate in the heat of the oven to caramelized and fragrant perfection. Accented with warm pie spices and bound with nutty browned butter, the topping provides a welcome crunchy contrast to the tender fruit filling. Serve it sprinkled with sea salt, à la mode, or crowned with an airy cloud of bourbon-infused whipped cream.

See other recipes in our Cooking from the Bar Cart series.

Ingredients

Bourbon-Peach Crisp (Yield: 6 to 8 servings)
For the peach filling
- 2½ lb. ripe peaches, washed
- Juice of ½ lemon
- ⅓ cup turbinado sugar (see note)
- Seeds scraped from ½ vanilla bean pod (or ½ tsp. vanilla extract)
- 1 tbsp. cornstarch
- 3 tbsp. bourbon
For the brown butter crisp topping
- 8 tbsp. butter
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- ⅓ cup turbinado sugar (see note)
- 1 tsp. lemon zest
- ¼ tsp. kosher salt
- ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
For serving
- Fine sea salt, vanilla ice cream, or bourbon whipped cream (optional)

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease an 8-x-8-inch (2-qt.) baking dish with butter. Set aside.

Prepare the filling: Slice each peach into 8 wedges. Toss the peaches with the lemon juice, sugar, vanilla bean seeds or extract, cornstarch, and bourbon to coat. Transfer to the prepared baking dish. Set aside.

Prepare the topping: Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium-low and cook until golden brown and fragrant (watch closely as it can easily burn), 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside. Blend flour, oats, sugar, lemon zest, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Drizzle brown butter over dry ingredients, tossing to incorporate and create a crumbly mixture. Spread topping over peach filling.

Place the baking dish on a baking sheet. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and caramelized at the edges and the topping is golden brown and crisp. Carefully remove from the oven and let cool 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Salt lightly with sea salt if you wish. Serve in bowls topped with scoops of vanilla ice cream or dollops of bourbon whipped cream, if desired.

Note: If you do not have turbinado or raw sugar, substitute equal parts light brown sugar and granulated sugar to yield the amount of sugar called for in the recipe.

Katherine Cobbs is a cookbook author and editor. Her most recent books are Pantry Cocktails (2021) and Tequila & Tacos (2020) published by Simon & Schuster. She also developed recipes for Garden & Gun’s The Southerner’s Cookbook – Recipes, Wisdom, and Stories.