61: Beyond the Pie Crust: The Charm of Fruit and Dough Marriages

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The Yummy Geography of Fruit Desserts

In this episode, we take a tasty tour through regional fruit desserts that go beyond the basic pie. We start with the sonker, a deep-dish fruit specialty from North Carolina with Scottish roots, known for its juicy filling and sunken crust often served with a sweet “dip.” We then sort out the differences between similar-sounding treats: crisps (with oats and nuts), crumbles (without oats), cobblers (with biscuit topping), grunts and slumps (topped with rolled biscuit dough), and buckles (fruit cakes with streusel that creates a buckled appearance).

We also chat about the famous Tarte Tatin, accidentally created by the Tatin sisters at their French hotel in the 1880s when overcooked apples were rescued with pastry and flipped upside-down. Our fruit dessert journey concludes with betties, which feature buttery crumbs layered throughout, and pandowdies, where the topping gets pressed down during baking so fruit juices bubble over it. Many of these practical desserts evolved from the need to use available ingredients efficiently, including Depression-era pandowdies that sometimes substituted stale bread for traditional topping.

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Resources

Keep the learning going with this websites and resources:

• Surry Sonker Trail
• Crisp, Crumble, Cobbler, and Buckle: Here’s the Lowdown on These Easy Fruit Desserts
• Old-Fashioned Apple Pan Dowdy Recipe | The Kitchn
• Crisp, Crumble, Betty, Or Buckle: Which Is Which? – Farmers’ Almanac – Plan Your Day. Grow Your Life.
• What’s the Difference Between a Crisp, Crumble, Cobbler, Slump, and Buckle?
• Curnonsky
• Recreating a 1933 Apple Pandowdy