From Cook's Illus July/August 1998...Crisps, Crunches, Crumbles, Betties and Veiled Maidens
Just how these topped fruit desserts differ from each other is not entirely clear. a crisp, for exampe, is fruit baked with a topping made from butter, sugar, and flour. However, many other variations qualify as crisps, including those with topping ingredients such as nuts, cake or cracker crumbs, or cornflakes. A crunch, often confused with a crisp by many authors, is, acording to the "Joy of Cooking", fruit sandwiched between two layers of buttered bread crumbs. A Betty, however, is fruit baked with buttered bread crumbs, not necessarily sandwiched between two layers, which makes it pretty close to a crunch. (However, there are recipes for Betties that do call for a top and bottom layer of bread crumbs.) A crumble, for which there seems to be some consensus, is a crisp that uses oats along with the flour.
All these definitions aside, common usage suggests that crisps have a top layer of streusel, crumbles are crisps that use oats, and crunches and Beties are layered with bread crumbs.
