What's the Difference Between a Crisp, Crumble, Cobbler, Slump, and Buckle? (2024)

They're all delicious, but they're not all the same.

By

Sarra Sedghi

What's the Difference Between a Crisp, Crumble, Cobbler, Slump, and Buckle? (1)

Sarra Sedghi has more than 10 years of experience as a food writer. She covers cooking, restaurants, and food culture, as well as travel, design, and lifestyle.

Published on February 3, 2023

What's the Difference Between a Crisp, Crumble, Cobbler, Slump, and Buckle? (2)

Plenty of our favorite summer fruits are in season, meaning there's never been a better time to bake them. Whether you got a great deal on blueberries or just picked a ton of strawberries at your local farm, there's no better way to enjoy them than in a cobbler or crisp.

No matter what they're called, they feature all the appeals of pie, minus the hurdles that come with constructing one. Rather than crossing your fingers with a pie crust, you just place everything in a trusty casserole dish. All you need is a little time and at least one scoop of vanilla ice cream for the perfect piece celebrating the pinnacle of summer baking.

Crisps, cobblers, and the like all encompass baked fruit topped with free-form carbohydrates. These fruity desserts can have all kinds of filling combinations, but their names deviate based on what kind of topping is used and the overall structure of the dish. We'll start with crisps and cobbler, the most popular desserts with the easiest difference to remember.

Crisps

What's the Difference Between a Crisp, Crumble, Cobbler, Slump, and Buckle? (3)

The difference between crisps and cobbler all comes down to what's on top. Crisps typically have a topping comprised of flour, nuts, butter, cereal (usually oatmeal or granola), and sugar, leaving a — you guessed it — crisp texture. The topping can also include streusel — what matters here is the crunch. Thanks to their crumbly nature, crisps are also called crumbles.

Cobbler

Cobbler is usually topped with batter or biscuits in lieu of crust. Cobbler's name comes from its sometimes cobbled texture, which is a result of spooning or dropping the topping over the fruit rather than distributing it equally. This way, the filling can peek through.

Buckles, Slumps, and More

What's the Difference Between a Crisp, Crumble, Cobbler, Slump, and Buckle? (5)

Cobbler and crisps are the mightiest limbs on the baked fruit dessert tree. From there, distinct or hyperlocal treats branch out. Buckles, moist fruit cakes with streusel topping, get their name from their topping's buckled appearance. Sometimes they're called crisps, which only adds to the confusion. Grunts, also known as slumps, are baked or stewed fruit dishes topped with rolled biscuit dough (While cobbler can also include biscuit dough, the technique for topping a grunt is much more systematic than dripping or spooning it over fruit). Finally, sonkers, which are mainly sequestered to Surry County, North Carolina and the Blue Ridge Mountains, have a soupier texture—and much more juice—than a standard cobbler. The sonker is typically paired with a vanilla cream sauce called "dip" that's glazed over the finished dish.

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What's the Difference Between a Crisp, Crumble, Cobbler, Slump, and Buckle? (2024)

FAQs

What's the Difference Between a Crisp, Crumble, Cobbler, Slump, and Buckle? ›

Though crumbles, crisps, and cobblers are more akin to pie, a buckle is a lot like cake. In fact, they look nearly identical to fruit-filled coffee cakes. As the batter rises in the oven, the weight of the fruit causes it to “buckle.”

What is the difference between a crisp and a cobbler? ›

Cobbler: A fruit dessert made with a top crust of pie dough or biscuit dough but no bottom crust. Crisp/crumble: In Alberta, the terms are mostly interchangeable. Both refer to fruit desserts similar to cobbler but made with a brown sugar streusel topping sometimes containing old-fashioned rolled oats.

What is the difference between apple crisp and crumble? ›

Like an apple crisp, an apple crumble is a baked fruit dessert with a layer of topping. But unlike the crisp, the crumble topping rarely includes oats or nuts. Instead, a crumble's topping is more like streusel, made with flour, sugar and butter.

What is a buckle in baking? ›

Buckles. A charmingly old-fashioned dessert that deserves a comeback, a buckle is a single-layer cake with berries or cut-up fruit in the batter, giving it a "buckled," or indented, appearance.

What is the difference between a buckle and a cake? ›

Technically, “buckle” is a cake made with fruit added to the batter and topped with streusel.

What is the difference between a crisp cobbler crumble and a buckle? ›

Though crumbles, crisps, and cobblers are more akin to pie, a buckle is a lot like cake. In fact, they look nearly identical to fruit-filled coffee cakes. As the batter rises in the oven, the weight of the fruit causes it to “buckle.”

Why is it called a buckle cake? ›

Buckle. A buckle is a funny name for an old fashioned fruit studded coffee cake. Like many other desserts in the extended cobbler family buckles take their name from their appearance—grunts grunt as they cook, slumps slump when served, buckles—you guessed it—buckle.

What is the difference between apple crumble and apple slump? ›

A 'grunt' is a cobbler cooked on top of the stove and a 'slump' is fruit and biscuit dumplings which is turned upside down after being baked so that the fruit is slumped into the fruit with a fork. Apple crumble is a British pudding similar to the apple crisp that originated during World War II food rationing.

What makes it a cobbler? ›

Cobbler is usually topped with batter or biscuits in lieu of crust. Cobbler's name comes from its sometimes cobbled texture, which is a result of spooning or dropping the topping over the fruit rather than distributing it equally. This way, the filling can peek through.

What's the difference between a brown betty and a crisp? ›

A brown betty is similar to a crisp or crumble, except the topping is layered into the fruit mixture before baking for an intensely crunchy effect. Food Network Kitchen's Grilled Rhubarb Brown Betty is warm, sweet and super-crisp — excellent when served with a scoop of strawberry ice cream.

What is the difference between a slump and a grunt? ›

Fact: The terms “grunt” and “slump” can be used interchangeably, so use whichever one makes you giggle the most. “While it's unclear where the names originated,” Eisler says, “'grunt' likely refers to the sound the dessert makes while cooking, and 'slump' probably describes the appearance of the plated portion.”

What's the difference between a cobbler and a grunt? ›

Grunts are very similar to cobblers, but they are STEAMED instead of BAKED. The New England name for a cobbler. Similar to a cobbler, but the biscuit or pie dough is rolled out and placed on top of the fruit.

Is cobbler a pie or cake? ›

Cobbler is sometimes described as a kind of fruit pie, but strictly speaking, the two are different. Pies are made from pastry, rather than biscuit batter, and they are fully encased, with a crust at the top and the bottom, while cobblers typically only have a topping.

What's the difference between cherry crisp and cherry cobbler? ›

What is the difference between a cherry crisp and a cherry cobbler? A “crisp” is baked fruit topped with a crunchy topping made of butter, flour, usually oats and maybe nuts . A “cobbler” is basically the same fruit topped with a sweet biscuit dough that seals the fruit and steams like a dumpling.

What makes something a cobbler? ›

Cobbler is usually topped with batter or biscuits in lieu of crust. Cobbler's name comes from its sometimes cobbled texture, which is a result of spooning or dropping the topping over the fruit rather than distributing it equally. This way, the filling can peek through.

Is a cobbler a craftsman? ›

The word cobbler is believed to be derived in the 14th century from the surname and place name “cobelere”, meaning “one who mends shoes”. A shoe mender, shoe repairer, a shoe-maker, one who hand-crafts shoes. In modern day, a cobbler is a master craftsman, an artisan.

What is the difference between a cobbler and a betty? ›

Betty. Whereas crisps and cobblers are made up of a layer of fruit with either a streusel or pastry topping, with apple betty and its variations, we start constructing desserts made of alternating layers of fruit and pastry—or in this case crumbs.

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