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A few weeks ago, a sale on cherries (and over enthusiasm on my part) left me with a bit of a surplus that needed to be used up. There are so many ways that you can use cherries, but when you combine my laziness with my love of flavour, I don't think you can beat a crumble/crisp. It's rustic and simple, comes together quickly and makes for a really tasty dessert (or breakfast!).
I won't try to fool you into thinking this is health food (because it's not), but I like to use whole food/whole grain ingredients as much as I can and I think the whole grains really give a nice hearty balance with the fruit.
Because this was a recipe I came up with on the fly, I used some frozen fruit, but fresh would likely be better. And the pictures are terrible because I took them on the phone. But whatever...I figured the internet needed to have this dessert recipe. Especially now that cherries are coming into season.
rustic mixed summer fruit crumble
6 cups fruit (can be made with any combination of summer fruits - peaches, apricots, nectarines, berries, etc.)
2 T corn starch
1/3 c brown sugar (not necessary with ripe fruit)
topping:
1/2 c spelt flour (could use whole wheat or just substitute more oatmeal)
1/2 c chopped walnuts (or other nuts)
1/2 c oats
1/2 unsweetened flaked coconut
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c melted butter (ideally salted; if not salted, add a couple of pinches of salt)
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Spray/oil/butter a 9x9 baking dish. Put the fruit directly in the dish, then scatter over the 1/3 c brown sugar and cornstarch. Mix a bit to combine (if your fruit is really ripe, you can maybe skip the sugar, but I liked the level of sweetness this provided). BTW, if you don't have a cherry pitter (which I don't), I find that the easiest way to pit cherries is to squish them a bit with a knife until you feel them give a bit (squish away from yourself so you don't stain your clothes!), then you can cut around the pit and it will pop out easily. Your kitchen will still look like a murder scene, but it's easier than trying to just dig out the pits.
3. Combine the topping ingredients - I like to use melted butter because I'm lazy and it's easier to mix in. You could take the long way around and cut the butter into the dry ingredients, but I wouldn't bother. ;) Sprinkle/spread the topping over the fruit. It doesn't have to be perfect. Squish it down a bit, but don't fuss too much.
4. Bake for about 30-35 minutes (keep an eye on your topping so it doesn't burn).
This is so delicious - it's pretty juicy when it comes out of the oven and would be AMAZING over vanilla ice cream, but it does firm up the next day and the leftovers make for a delicious breakfast. As a bonus, using nuts in the topping means that the topping retains its crunch.And yes, I do fully realize that my oven needs cleaning. :p