Summer baking is for fruit.
It’s true you can bake the same loaf of bread or tray of brownies every week and probably never perfect them, but I would argue that finding joy in the seasonality of baking, as one does with cooking, will diversify and sharpen your baking skills better than the same weekly bake.
What’s more, if baking is about simple things with intention and skill, then summer baking offers the perfect training ground to broaden our skills. Finding the perfect fruit and combining it with just enough butter, sugar, and flour to enhance — not mask — the flavor of said fruit, is harder than it sounds. The summer fruit nature offers is too delicate to take a heavy hand with spice and fat. Peaches, plums, nectarines and berries require us to step back and trust nature has done the job correctly.
A beautiful plum crumble is simple: The crumble is light, lemony and provides a just touch of textural contrast to lightly sweetened and spiced plums. The plum crumble comes together in less than 30 minutes, and gets out to the beach or pool in no time with a perfect dessert waiting for you at the end of the day.
Chris Wilkins has been a professional baker for 12 years. He is a two-time James Beard Award nominee and the founder and co-owner of Root Baking Co. and Pizza Jeans. Submit your baking questions to bakebetterajc@gmail.com.
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