Not sure if there will be a second because when we went berry picking this weekend I heard there was only a week left for the cherries. We went to Butler's Orchard in Germantown, Maryland. I love this place because they're organized, it's always fun, cheaper than store bought and most importantly, the produce is tasty!! Especially the berries and cherries - my favorite. This year the tart cherries were SO abundant it was crazy. We were wondering if the farm ends up picking them all and what they do with leftovers. We picked several pounds (and ate a bunch too!) from only a few trees. They were that full of fruit! No pictures because it was an electronic free outing to the fields 🙂 Blueberries were great too - we might have to go back for more!

I heard several people mentioning how they were going to cook their freshly picked fruit into pies with lots of sugar and oh was it going to be great. No!!! This fruit is so good and fresh it shines on its own! Even these tart cherries (think mix of cherry and a little bite of lemon) were delicious on their own. PLUS they have all sorts of awesome health benefits (more on that here).

I decided to make a crisp (or crumble, however you want to call it) with a thick and hearty topping - oat based of course. A little sweetener, but just a tad in order for the cherry flavor to come through. I thought about making it paleo with just almond flour and nuts but I love oats too much 🙂 You could totally sub them out for more finely chopped nuts if you want to keep this grain free.

First step was cutting ze berries in half to pit them. Bless my sous chef for his hard work. This was a lot of fruit! After it cooked down there was even room for more. I think this would be equally delicious with regular cherries, too. If balance out the sweetness by adding a little lemon juice to the mix though.

Next step: make the crumble! I combined all my dry ingredients, mixed in the coconut oil + sweetener, then just poured it on top. The more the merrier. I wouldn't judge if you double the topping

After a good 40 minutes in the oven we ended with this beautifully golden crust. {close up because texture}. NOM. It was hard to resist not eating it right away but we managed to save it for breakfast!! Served with blueberries that we had also picked and a little nut butter. Would highly recommend some thick Greek yogurt here to complement but we were out! Next time.

Hope you'll enjoy this as much as we did. Let me know if you try any variations and how they turn out!

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Tart Cherry Crisp + Butler's Orchard

A gluten free + vegan (and option for paleo) crisp recipe that can be used for any fresh fruit!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Cherry, Crisp, Dessert

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 8 servings

Author Andrea @ French Pressed Kitchen

Ingredients

Filling

• 6 cups fresh tart cherries or however much fills your dish
• 1 Tablespoon arrowroot powder

Topping

• 1 cup almond meal/flour
• ⅔ cup oats sub more almond meal + nuts for paleo version
• 1 cup chopped walnuts almonds and pecans
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon coconut sugar
• 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
• 4 Tablespoons coconut oil melted and cooled slightly

Instructions

• Heat oven to 350 F.
• Pit cherries and place straight into the dish you're using to bake. No need to grease your dish unless you've had issues in the past (my ceramic dish was just fine). Add in arrowroot powder and toss to combine.
• In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (almond flour, oats, nuts, salt, sugar) and mix until combined. Pour in the maple syrup and coconut oil, stirring to combine until mixture is crumbly. Pour on top of fruit and spread evenly.
• Bake for about 40 minutes or until fruit is bubbly and topping browns.
• Let cool for a few minutes, then dig in (maybe with ice cream if you're having it for dessert).

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