Cobblers, crumbles, slumps and grunts: A guide to baked fruit desserts

There are few types of food, let alone sweets, that everyone can agree on. But if I had to pick one with widespread, if not universal, appeal, it would be rustic, nostalgic and casual baked fruit desserts. You know the kind: best served warm, ideally with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and easily made with whatever fruit you have around.

As to what to call the various types? That’s another matter entirely.

If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between a cobbler, crisp, crumble and a buckle - oh, and let’s throw the Brown Betty, slump and grunt into the mix - you’re not alone. And with good reason: There’s no agreed-upon definition for this class of beloved American desserts, and the names often vary by region or even family.

I appreciate this overarching definition from the 2006 edition of "Joy of Cooking” by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker that captures the breadth of the genre: "This family of desserts is based on biscuit or pie dough, dumplings, breadcrumbs, or crumbled toppings; the fruit may be cooked under, over, or inside the dough, or between dough layers. A few are adapted from European pastries, but most are American inventions, simple home cooking.”

Summer is prime time for these types of desserts. The fruit is abundant and varied. The desire to celebrate it is irresistible.

"They’re so comforting and nostalgic, and they make use of fruit that is often local, in season, for a brief period of time, and it’s definitely ‘seize the day,’” says Anne Byrn, who researched some of the most well-known options for her 2024 book, "Baking in the American South.”

Also, "it’s hot and it’s not time for an elaborate cake,” says cookbook author Virginia Willis.

Regardless of the season, home cooks appreciate the appeal of desserts that rely on pantry staples and are often flexible enough to swap the fruit as they see fit. Even better, underripe or overripe berries and stone fruit are just fine when baked into one of these dishes.

Plus, "the threshold is low,” Willis says. You don’t need much in the way of skill to stir together a cobbler or crisp. The low-risk, high-reward stakes make them an ideal treat for even beginning bakers.

So which one should you pick? Let’s get into the differences - and similarities - between some of the most popular options.

CobblerA classic blueberry cobbler using piecrust dough. (Photo by Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post)

Of all the categories of desserts here, the cobbler is the most confounding. It doesn’t help that not everyone can agree on how the dish got its name. One theory is its easy-to-assemble nature, the way you can simply, well, cobble it together. Another convincing explanation I came across in my research indicates the name is more about the appearance. "Cobblers have been made since at least the mid-1800s, getting their name from the top, which looks like cobbled streets,” Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart write in "Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking.” "With no bottom crust and just a topping over the fruit, they are sometimes called the ‘lazy girl’s pie.’”

One style of the dessert features a pielike crust draped over the top. That’s the kind of peach cobbler inextricably tied to the South’s Black community. Byrn, who grew up eating it in Tennessee, ranks it among the top three sweets of the South, along with poundcake and banana pudding.

Another common style of cobbler showcases biscuits or a biscuit-adjacent topping on the fruit. Byrn says this "newer” cobbler may be a product of the 1950s self-rising flour fad.

Chef Scott Peacock, Lewis’s co-author on "The Gift of Southern Cooking,” writes that he recalls his mother even using canned biscuits for the topping.

There’s also the batter cobbler, in which fruit is piled into the center of a skillet before a mix of melted butter, flour, sugar and milk gets poured over the top.

To further cement his point that in Alabama, "we called anything a cobbler that had fruit covered by a baked topping,” Peacock describes the offering at one local restaurant that served peach cobbler made with canned fruit, dry Duncan Hines yellow cake mix and melted butter.

CrumbleA crumble has a pielike filling and a streusel-like topping. (Photo by Stacy Zarin Goldberg/For The Washington Post)

Here’s another dessert where the distinction is clear as mud, as you’ve probably seen the terms "crumble” and "crisp” thrown around interchangeably. A crumble always has a pielike filling and a streusel-like topping made with flour, butter and sugar. "The butter is cut into the dry ingredients, and the mixture spooned onto the pie filling without further preparation, after which the pie is baked,” according to "The Oxford Companion to Food” by Alan Davidson. "The butter melts and binds the solid ingredients into large grains, but they do not form a solid layer like a true pastry. The texture can only be described as crumbly.”

After that, things get less definitive. Sometimes oats are added to the topping. Sometimes you’ll find nuts in there, too, at which point you might actually have our next category of dessert.

Crisp
While there's no official definition of what makes a crisp, this dessert usually has a crunchy topping that can include nuts or oats, and/or granola. (Photo by Scott Suchman/For The Washington Post)

There’s very little daylight between crisps and crumbles, but for those who have tried to draw the line, the inclusion of oats and/or nuts in the topping may be what sets the former apart, though that’s not always the case. Byrn notes that crisps are particularly well-suited to a delicate fruit such as blueberries, as they offer a saucy contrast to the crunchy topping. "An approximate ratio of three parts fruit to one part topping makes a perfect crisp,” opines "Joy of Cooking.” If you are looking for a shortcut, try incorporating granola into the topping along with the flour and butter.

BuckleA buckle is a type of cake in which the fruit may be folded into the batter or spread in a single layer. (Photo by Justin Tsucalas/For The Washington Post)

A buckle is a type of cake in which the fruit may be folded into the batter or spread in a single layer. It also boasts "a generous crumbly streusel topping,” "Joy of Cooking” says. "The cake buckles, or crumples, in spots from the weight of the topping before the batter sets, creating pockets of caramelized sugar and butter.”

Slump/grunt
Whether you call it a slump or a grunt, this type of dessert involves dumplings. (Photo by Scott Suchman/For The Washington Post)

Much like crisps and crumbles, people tend to bandy about slump and grunt interchangeably. These desserts are more associated with New England, Dupree and Graubart write. Both are typically made on the stovetop and feature dumplings that steam in cooking.

"Grunts are steamed in a mold in a pot of water and inverted when served - somewhat resembling a warm fruit shortcake,” according to "Joy of Cooking.” "Slumps are cooked in a covered saucepan and served dumpling side up in bowls - more like a hot, sweet soup or stew under dumplings. If the grunt is perhaps named for the sound it makes when unmolded, the name ‘slump’ seems to describe the eventual fate of the dumplings.”

Brown Betty
A Brown Betty uses stale bread or breadcrumbs. (Photo by Justin Tsucalas/For The Washington Post)

The Brown Betty ("Nobody remembers who Betty was,” says "Joy of Cooking”) leans into the thrifty nature of these fruit desserts by incorporating stale bread or dried breadcrumbs, along with plenty of butter. Many recipes specify building the fruit and crumbs in several layers, though you can also just do a single layer of each. Willis describes it as a kind of fruity bread pudding also closely affiliated with New England, which makes sense given it often stars apples or pears.