Until about a month ago, my son was a die-hard thumb sucker. He was just super attached to it. And when he didn’t have a thumb in his mouth, his shirt collar worked, too. I was getting tired of all the damp, stretched out shirt collars. Not to mention the thought of orthodontia bills down the road!

Our dentist connected us with a miracle worker I call The Thumb Lady, and now he’s habit-free! And since he’s not putting his thumb in his mouth, he now has space for other things. Like these amazing bars.

If you want an apt description of this dessert, it’s an delicious cross between an apple pie and an apple crisp, but in a bar. With tons of crumbs. Like, enough crumbs to please even the pickiest crumb fiend (ahem, that’s me). The middle layer is made of apple pie filling, which means less effort for you!

In fact, this recipe is pretty user-friendly, start to finish. The ingredients for the crumb base and the bottom crust are one and the same, and get made in a mixer in literally seconds. You could also mix by hand using your fingers or a pastry cutter, but that would take just a few minutes more.

When you’re done, you have a lovely dessert that works great anywhere. I used it for a late-season BBQ dessert, but with fall coming, the possibilities are endless!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 egg
• 2 and 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 can apple pie filling

Preheat the oven to 350. Coat an 8 x 8 pan with cooking spray.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the dry ingredients by hand briefly. Then put the bowl on the mixer base and put the butter and egg in the bowl. Beat for 1-2 minutes until the mixture becomes crumbly.

Press half of the mixture into the pan. Spread the apple pie filling evenly over the base. Crumble the remaining dough over the top.

Bake until golden, from 35-40 minutes. Cool and cut into squares. Store in an airtight container.

But I have another obsession as well, and it’s kind of a year-round thing. Anything with lime, anytime, I’m there. I know it’s not fashionable to like lime in December, but hey, they sell limes all the time. I’m buying them. Simple as that!

Last week, I had an idea. What if I took my two favorite summer fruit flavors and combined them? Gross, or spectacular? I had to find out. Turns out, it paid off!

Yep! White nectarines and lime zest are the new chocolate and peanut butter. They’re a happy pair. And this crisp is now gone. I’m so glad I took pictures of it already!

Could you do this with regular nectarines or peaches? Sure, why not? But if you use peaches, I’d peel them first. Too fuzzy. That’s why I’m not a peach girl. In fact, most food likes and dislikes are rooted in texture. Did you know that? A fun fact! Don’t say I never do anything for you.

If you want, you can easily double this recipe. I typically make a smaller crisp because it’s perfect for a family dinner or friendly gathering, and then it’s gone. You can make it a little fancier with ice cream on top, but it’s not necessary!

With the lime zest, there’s a great tang that balances out the nectarines. You do need that sprinkle of sugar on top of the fruit, though, or you’ll have quite a sour tart. Nobody likes that.

July is winding down, everyone. Before you start crying, make as many summery desserts as you can! Start here. It’s a good place to be!

Topping:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar minus 1 tablespoon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted cold butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup rolled or quick oats (depends on the texture you want)

Filling:

• 6 white nectarines, pitted and sliced (but not peeled)
• lime zest from 1 lime
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon flour

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray an 8 x 8 square pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, mix the dry topping ingredients. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, work the butter in until the mixture is crumbly. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, toss the nectarines, lime zest, sugar, vanilla and flour. Spread the filling evenly into the prepared pan. Top with the crumb mixture and pat down gently.

Bake for 35 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven. This can be served warm or at room temperature. If you refrigerate it, the crumb topping will get soft.

I was doing her hair the other day and she asked for me to do it “just like Elsa’s.” I swear to all the powers above, Frozen is doing me in. My hair is turning gray from that movie alone and how addicted my kids are to it. Anyway, no matter what I did to her hair, she continued to insist that it didn’t look right. I mean, duh. She has shoulder-length dirty blonde curly hair. Elsa has waist-length platinum flowy masses of Pantene commercial hair.

But try explaining that to a preschooler. To say she threw a tantrum would be an understatement.

She’s also been planning her fourth birthday party with way too much intricate detail. Have I mentioned she has two themes? Hello Kitty and (duh again) Frozen. Luckily, when it comes to party prep, I actually bake enough to satisfy her. And these cinnamon crunch bars are all part of the pre-party baking binge!

They’re really decadent. Buttery and crumbly and nutty and loaded with cinnamon. They’re a bit of extra work because you have to make two different layers, but the end result is pretty worth it.

For those of you with nut allergies, leave out the pecans. It’ll still taste good! But if you have no objections to having them stay, they toast very nicely in the oven and provide a great contrast for all the cinnamon sweetness.

On the bottom of these lovelies is a cinnamon sugar cookie dough layer. Kind of like a Snickerdoodle, actually, but better. And then the top is crumbs. Lots and lots of crumbs! And when they bake, they get all crunchy and crumbly. Nothing to hate here!

And nothing for my daughter to object to, I hope. As demanding as she is, my little girl doesn’t complain about dessert! She takes after her mommy that way.

Enjoy this party sampling!

Cookie Layer:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups flour
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Crumb Layer:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 2 cups chopped pecans

Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons milk

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 325. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Start with the crust layer. Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. Using the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg yolk and mix again. Gradually, mix in the dry ingredients until a dough forms.

Press the dough onto the cookie sheet. Bake for ten minutes.

While the crust layer is baking, clean out your mixer parts and make the topping. Combine the flour, cinnamon, sugar and salt. Add the pieces of cold butter an beat until crumbs form. Stir in the pecans gently.

Crumble the topping layer over the crust layer and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. Cool completely.

When the bars are cool, mix the glaze ingredients together and drizzle over the bars. When the glaze has solidified, cut into squares. Store in an airtight container.

With the end of the week here, you’d think I would be thrilled. And I am. It’s just that I have fifty thousand research papers looming over my head to be graded this weekend and I’m not looking forward to it. I need to be distracted. And pie is very distracting!

It’s funny, but when it comes to pie, I only get a hankering to get my crust on at particular times of year. Thanksgiving, for instance. I go pie crazy then, making at least five different kinds for dessert after several weeks of research and flavor testing. Something about Thanksgiving makes me want the old-school crust, the pastry kind.

But come early summer, when my pie craving resurfaces with a vengeance, I just want cookie crusts. Graham cracker crust, shortbread crust, or anything else that resembles a cookie holding that pie together. It must be something to do with fruit, and we all know that nothing is nicer with a piece of fruit or sorbet than a nice, light cookie.

No matter what time of year it is, I always want a crumb topping. On pie. On cake. On muffins. In my mouth.

So when the white nectarines start to come out (a.k.a. the best fruit on the planet), it’s pie time! If you want to really impress the people who usually bake with canned peaches, pull this recipe out. It’s easy and perfect for an outdoor picnic. Or an indoor dessert session after a particularly harrowing run-in with a six year-old, a sprinkler, a dead bee and some sidewalk chalk. Don’t ask.

For this pie, I used a pre-made crust. Don’t judge! I keep telling you that. I make my own crust often enough. This time, Keebler’s shortbread crust did the trick quite nicely. If you want to be a crust snob, then make one. I dare you!

If you’d rather spend the extra time eating up the rest of the Ben and Jerry’s in your freezer, then use the grocery store crust. People will still like the pie. Actually, they’ll love it. You see, it’s filled with fresh nectarines (unpeeled, too!) and a sprinkling of vanilla and sugar.

Once you’re done with that, you make a simple crumb topping (easier if you have a pastry cutter, but that’s not a requirement), bake it up, and there you go! Fresh nectarine pie. And you can serve it at whatever temperature you like. I know most people like their pie hot with ice cream on top, but I’m weird. I love cold pie. It’s the best! Especially when it’s warm out.

Forget Pie Day. It’s Pie Season! Grab a fork and get to work!

Ingredients:

• shortbread pie crust (I used Keebler brand)
• 6 ripe white unpeeled nectarines, cut into pieces
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter (not softened)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup sugar

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350.

Slice six white nectaines into small chunks. You do not need to peel the nectarines; just be sure they are washed well. Place the nectarines into the shortbread pie crust. Drizzle on the vanilla and then sprinkle the sugar evenly over the fruit.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour and sugar. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut in the butter until the ingredients become crumbly. Press the mixture onto the nectarins filling, being sure the crumbs cover the entire pie.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until the crust is crunchy and browned. Some of the nectarine juice may rise and bubble through the crumbs as well. That is perfectly okay!

Cool if desired and then cut into wedges.

So Buddy, ever the obliging baker, set about making another crumb cake as fast as he could, promising to be done within the hour. And I watched. Fascinated. Enthralled. I’d kind of forgotten, until that episode, how much I love crumb cake.

My ode to crumbs continues today with this crumb cake. You see, it’s kind of an obsession. In my single days, I used to buy an Entenmann’s Ultimate Crumb Cake, sit down at my tiny kitchen table, and eat the crumbs off the top of the cake. Why? Because I could. I would eventually get around to the rest of the cake, but it wasn’t as much fun. I just couldn’t resist all those crumbs.

Since those crazy times, I haven’t had much crumb cake. That is, until the fateful episode of Cake Boss. In the months since, I’ve baked a lot of different crumb cakes. Some have stuff inside, like apples and cinnamon. Some are plain, like this one. But they are all delicious and deserve to be given lots of attention.

The most important thing to keep in mind when making a crumb cake is to keep that crumb layer as thick as possible. You want the crumbs to overwhelm the cake. Just be careful if you’re playing around. I was making a crumb cake a few months ago while experimenting with oat flour, and the crumb part was so heavy that the top layer sunk down into the cake. It was kind of like an upside-down cake, but not. Epic fail, people.

But failure is a part of life. Without it, we would never know success. And that is my wise nugget of the day.

And here’s some bonus wisdom: go make some crumb cake. Crumb cake makes life worth living!

Cake Layer:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk (I used 2 percent)
• 1 and 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, melted

Crumb Topping:

• 1 and 3/4 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• powdered sugar, for dusting after baking (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Line an 8-inch round or square pan with parchment paper and grease with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, lighly beat the egg. Add the milk and set aside.

In a larger bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the egg mixture and butter, mixing thoroughly until a smooth batter forms. Pour the batter into the cake pan.

Make the crumb topping. Combine the dry ingredietns and mix well. Add the butter and vanilla and, using your fingers, mix the ingredients until crumbs start to form. Making sure to leave the crumbs nice and big, layer on top of the cake batter.

Put the cake in the oven and bake for 30 minutes until the crumbs are golden. Let the cake cool, and then dust the top with powdered sugar if desired. Remove from the pan and place on a plate or cake stand. If you want to save some, double-wrap the cake in foil and a freezer bag. It will freeze well for up to one month!

Well, these aren’t cake. They’re bars. But really, who cares? It’s all about the crumbs, baby! And this simple recipe has crumbs upon crumbs to the point that they’re spilling out of the pan and straight into your mouth, where they melt as you sigh in ecstasy.

Before I keep using the word “crumbs,” let me explain how this magic happens with little effort on your part.

See, this recipe uses yellow cake mix. Yep, it’s a cheat! And quite a good one, I might add. Whipping this up takes ten minutes or less, and what better way to use up a box of cake mix that has been sitting in your pantry for too long because your husband bought it by accident when you told him you wanted all-purpose flour?

Sorry, sorry.  I got carried away again. It happens. Ahem. Back to the yumminess. See how I couldn’t stop the crumbs from falling onto the plate? That’s a good thing, y’all.

Basically, you mix the quick oats into the yellow cake mix, add melted butter, and make crumbs. Some of them go in the bottom of the pan for crust, and the rest of them get crumbled on top. You can pick your filling. I chose strawberry jelly and white chocolate chips, but raspberry jelly and dark chocolate would work just as well. It’s not about that. It’s about the topping, which we’ve already established. See the topping? It’s crumbtastic!

The result is rewarding and addictive. I’m not really a yellow cake mix person, but in this form it’s both unrecognizable and fantastic. And let’s face it: I’m also a sucker for a good bar cookie. Especially one that I can make while my three kids are having a play date with two other kids and I’m trying to make sure that nobody gets maimed.

Give this a shot. It’s foolproof, and you’ll impress your friends! Crumbs. Crumbs. Crumbs. It’s go time!

Ingredients:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 and 1/2 cups quick oats (do not use regular oats)
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 10 oz. white chocolate chips
• 1/2 jar strawberry jelly

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil, letting the foil overhang the sides of the pan for easy removal later on. Coat with cooking spray.

In a bowl, combine the yellow cake mix and oats thoroughly. Pour in the melted butter and stir until the mixture forms crumbs. Press several handfuls of the crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan to make a crust, reserving the rest.

Spread a thin layer of jelly over the crust, and then sprinkle the white chocolate chips over the jelly evenly. Finally, crumble the rest of the topping over the chocolate chips, being sure that the crumbs vary from larger to medium-sized.

Bake for 25 minutes until the crumbs are turning golden. Remove from the oven and cool. Cut into bars or triangles. Store in an airtight container for up to one week.