Cherry Crumble
This easy Cherry Crumble is a cross between a cherry cobbler and a cherry crisp. Homemade cherry pie filling is topped with a crumb topping reminiscent of a shortbread cookie. It’s one of my favorite summer desserts.
Servings: 8 servings
Ingredients
Cherry Filling:
- 6-7 cups cherries, pitted*
- 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 2-4 Tbsp granulated sugar**
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 1 Tbsp orange juice
Crumble Topping:
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp orange zest
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract***
- 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cubed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9” or 10” deep dish pie plate or an 8x11” baking pan. Set aside.
Cherry Filling:
- In a large bowl, mix cherries with flour, sugar, almond extract, vanilla extract, orange zest, and orange juice. Once mixed together, pour the cherry filling into the prepared baking dish.
Crumb Topping:
- In a large bowl, mix brown sugar, granulated sugar, and orange zest together. This helps release the natural oils in the orange zest, which brings out the orange flavor. Next, add in vanilla and almond extracts and mix until combined.
- Next, add in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until combined.
- Add in the cold and cubed butter, using a pastry cutter or fork to work the butter into the mixture until it resembles a crumb topping (the mixture will be a little dough like, which is what you want—see pictures above for the desired cookie crumb consistency).
- Sprinkle the crumb topping on top of the cherry filling.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the topping is lightly golden and the cherry filling is bubbling.
- Allow to cool for about 15-20 minutes before serving. Top with ice cream or whipped cream, if desired.
Notes
*You can use fresh or frozen cherries. If using frozen cherries, thaw and drain the cherries before making the cherry filling.
*Also, you can halve the cherries, keep them whole, or do a combination. I like to do a combination to give my cherry crumble more texture.
**Sugar: The amount of sugar you use in the filling is up to your taste preference. With the cookie crumble topping (which is a cross between a shortbread cookie, a sugar cookie, and a crumb topping), there is a lot of sweetness already in the dessert. If your cherries are very sweet, you can use less sugar or omit it all together.
***Don’t have almond extract? Just use more vanilla!