Fresh Summer Cherry Crisp Recipe

If you are looking for a way to use any fresh fruit you might have in your kitchen, a crisp is the perfect dessert option. This simple dish features a layer of fresh fruit sprinkled with a buttery, crunchy oat topping. You can make a crisp with any fruit you want and at any time of year, but this cherry crisp recipe from developer Jessica Morone is a perfect way to feature fresh summer cherries. 

The cherries turn soft and juicy as they bake, and their natural sweetness is complemented by a dash of tangy pineapple juice. The oats stay crispy on top and melt into the warm cherries, for a perfect combination of textures. A hint of cinnamon and vanilla round out the flavors. Served warm with a dollop of freshly whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream, this cherry crisp makes a wonderful summer treat.

One of the best things about this delicious dessert is how easy it is to make. Instead of having to make a crust for a pie, or a biscuit dough for a cobbler, a crisp will give you the same gooey fruit texture with a crispy topping on it, but with much less work. Assembling the filling and topping is as simple as stirring the ingredients together and then layering them. This makes it an ideal dessert for everyone to make, whether a novice or an experienced baker. 

Before you start making this crip you will have to gather all the ingredients. For the cherry filling you will need fresh pitted cherries, sugar, cornstarch, pineapple juice, and vanilla extract. For the crispy topping grab some flour, brown sugar, more granulated sugar, old-fashioned oats, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, butter, and some more granulated sugar and vanilla extract. 

You might be thinking that the pineapple juice is a weird addition here, but actually cherries and pineapples are perfect together. You can use the juice from a can of pineapple and use the pineapple itself however you want. If you want to skip the pineapple in this recipe, it can be replaced with lemon juice. 

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Lightly grease a deep 9-inch pie plate or 9 x 9-inch baking pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl gently mix together the cherries, sugar, cornstarch, pineapple juice, and vanilla extract until the cherries are coated.

Spread the cherry filling evenly into the prepared pan, set aside.

In a large bowl mix together the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, oats, vanilla extract, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

Add the melted butter to the bowl and mix until well combined.

Spoon the topping evenly over the cherry filling, breaking up any large chunks.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, until the topping is golden and the filling is bubbly around the edges.

Let cool for at least 10 minutes, then serve warm, with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

There are over 30 types of cherries out there, so you have a lot of options to use in this cherry crisp. These are all broken down into two main categories: sweet and tart. Generally, sweet cherries are better for eating fresh because tart cherries are just too sour. But for baked goods like this fresh summer cherry crisp, if you use tart cherries the sourness can be balanced with sugar. This recipe was developed with sweet cherries, but if you love tart cherries and want to use them in this recipe, you may want to increase the sugar in the recipe by an additional tablespoon to balance the tartness. Alternatively, you could consider mixing sweet and tart cherries together for a depth of flavor. 

You can use frozen cherries in this recipe, meaning you can make this cherry crisp any time of year. To use frozen cherries, defrost them first and drain any excess juice from them. Additionally, you can use canned cherries if you want to, as long as you rinse off any syrup they might have on them and drain them completely so they don't add too much moisture to the crisp. 

In order to use fresh cherries in this recipe the pits will have to be removed first. There are multiple ways to get this done. The easiest is probably to use a cherry pitter, which is specifically designed for this purpose. These can be bought for around $10 at a lot of retailers, and if you pit a lot of cherries it is a worthy investment. If you don't already have one of these lying around and don't want to buy one, there are plenty of other ways to get the pits out of fresh cherries. 

An easy way to remove the pits using an item you may already have in your kitchen is to use a straw. This method just requires sticking a straw through cherries and poking the pits out. Similarly, you could use a chopstick or a wooden skewer with similar results.  Another option to pit cherries without a pitter is to use a piping tip. With these techniques, you can remove the pits but still keep the cherries intact, which is what you want when you are making a cherry crisp. You can also use the side of a large knife to press down on the cherry, crushing it slightly, and then remove the pit. Finally, if you can find a large clean paperclip, you can unfold it into an S shape, insert it into the cherry, and use it to snag the pit and pull it out.