Gloppy fruit.......

A lot of people have been posting on Facebook lately about baking, since our "summer" weather has been more fall-like, and nothing says "rainy day" like whipping up a batch of cookies or a cake laden with frosting. But for some, baking means pies, tarts, crumbles, buckles, streusels and strudels, which basically means some variation of gloppy fruit and pastry. Now, I'm all for pastry - nothing says yum like a buttery, flaky pie crust. But once you add that glossy, sticky, shiny pile of fruit mixed with "thickening" such as flour or cornstarch, you ruin the whole thing. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy strawberries and apples, but I'm not big on blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, or any other "berry", really. And I'm certainly not a fan of taking perfectly good fruit and dicing it up, mixing it with other substances and creating a gloppy mess that you then serve warm, encased in pie crust. Ew. Apple pie I can stomach, as long as there is not too much apple. I like the IDEA of the fruit flavoring, along with the flaky crust (or crumble or streusel topping) but not a whole mess of thick fruit. I just don't find the tart flavor appealing and much prefer something sweet (which is why I will take cookies, cake and pastries any day over fruit desserts). I don't think anything with fruit in it can really be called a "dessert", since, as far as I'm concerned, it's a fruit serving, therefore healthy for you. Another way to truly enjoy fruit is to dip it in chocolate. Nothing like a little fondue action to make fruit more palatable. I wish I liked fruit pies more. They are so pretty and there's a whole art in baking a perfect pie or tart or what have you. But it's the gloppy fruit that turns me off.......sticky, gooey and altogether unpalatable. Maybe this is why I prefer chocolate.