Fruit Desserts, Baked

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets

By Darra Goldstein

Published 2015

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fruit desserts, baked, refers to a grouping of desserts made of fruit baked with some version of a crust. Occasionally referred to as “spoon pies,” the recipes are as much defined by their essential fruity nature as they are by their whimsical and often onomatopoeic names, which include “cobbler,” “crisp,” “crumble,” “buckle,” “betty,” and “pandowdy.” Their origins, along with their monikers, are universally murky. Some are closely associated with New England, indicating vague British derivations, but each has long passed into the collective American culinary lexicon.