James Beard Award-winning chef Cory Schreiber teams up with Julie Richardson, owner of Portland’s Baker & Spice, to showcase the freshest fruit available amidst a repertoire of nearly 75 satisfying old-timey fruit desserts, including crumbles, crisps, buckles, pies, and more. An early fall cobbler with blackberries bubbling in their juice beneath a golden cream biscuit. A crunchy oatmeal crisp made with mid-summer’s nectarines and raspberries. Or a comforting pear bread pudding to soften a harsh winter’s day. Simple, scrumptious, cherished–these heritage desserts featuring local fruit are thankfully experiencing a long-due revival. Whether you’re searching for the perfect ending to a sit-down dinner party or a delicious sweet to wrap up any night of the week, these broadly appealing and easy-to-prepare classics will become family favorites. "It is fate, really. Simply team up two Portland, Oregon, fruit experts--an award-winning chef turned farm-to-school food coordinator, and a baker known for her glorious handcrafted goods--and a must-have new little cookbook appears: Rustic Fruit Desserts by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson. . . . . This cookbook, a true collaboration, is a reflection of the passion they share for Oregon's amazing variety of seasonal fruits and the respect they have for the small growers who farm in a sustainable way. . . . The genius of this work lies in Schreiber's playful fruit combinations and Richardson's mastery of doughs and spices to complement them." – Gourmet “ Rustic Fruit Desserts embodies the modern wisdom about how to cook delicious food: make it fresh, local, and seasonal. As someone who’s always loved desserts with fruit and, who, like Julie, has New England roots, I also applaud the book’s mouthwatering taxonomy, which distinguishes between grunts, slumps, buckles, crisps, cobblers, and pandowdies.” –Sara Moulton, host of Sara’s Weeknight Meals and executive chef of Gourmet “Finally, all of my favorite kinds of dessert in one place! From warm berry buckles and crumbly crisps to boozy bread pudding, Rustic Fruit Desserts will help you bake your way through the best of the bounty.” –David Lebovitz, author of The Sweet Life in Paris and The Perfect Scoop * A collection of simple and satisfying recipes for crisps, slumps, buckles, grunts, and other old-timey desserts by a beloved Portland bakery owner in collaboration with one of the region's top chefs. * Rustic fruit desserts have broad appeal and come together easily--even for inexperienced bakers. * Recipes are grouped by season and showcase local fruit. Cory Schreiber is the founder of Wildwood Restaurant and winner of the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Pacific Northwest. Schreiber is a chef consultant for Sysco, the nation's largest foodservice marketer and distributor. Previously, he worked with the Oregon Department of Agriculture as the Farm-to-School Food Coordinator and taught cooking classes in Portland, Oregon. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Julie Richardson grew up enjoying the flavors that defined the changing seasons of her Vermont childhood. Her lively small-batch bakery, Baker & Spice, evolved from her involvement in the Portland and Hillsdale farmers’ markets. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Cory’s Perspective I first met Julie Richardson at the Portland Farmers Market in 1998. Back then, she sold handcrafted baked goods at a small booth called Baker & Spice. A farmers market was the natural place for Julie to sell her pastries and pies, as she made them with seasonal, locally grown fruit. Her rustic desserts were deliciously irresistible, and I became far too familiar with almost all of them. Given the devoted Baker & Spice following that lined up in droves every Saturday morning, rain or shine, (this is Portland, after all) to eat a breakfast pastry or buy a dessert to go, Baker & Spice eventually outgrew its farmers market booth. It now has a home as a retail bakery in the Hillsdale community of southwest Portland. Even though Baker & Spice is no longer at the farmers market, Julie’s seasonal approach is still a mainstay of her baking. The bakery is committed to local foods and seasonal products, and its repertoire of classic fruit desserts, from pies and pandowdies to cobblers and crumbles, changes throughout the year to reflect the freshest fruits available. In the Pacific Northwest, we are lucky to have a wide variety of seasonal fruits grown by small-scale farmers. This creates an abundance of delicious choices that can be baked into a vast selection of fruit desserts--much like the ones that keep customers queued up at Baker & Spice. No wonder Julie and her family have made Oregon their home! Julie grew up in rural Vermont, where orchards and berry fields were part of the summer landscape of her childhood. Turning fruit into dessert came naturally to her long before she engaged in professional baking. This book combines Julie’s knowledge o