Easy to stock ingredients, including frozen cherries, make this Easy Cherry Crisp a dessert that can be pulled together on a whim. Perfect for a spontaneous gathering or a last minute dessert anytime the craving strikes!
This fabulous cherry crisp recipe has been part of my recipe collection for a very, very long time.
It calls for frozen cherries and was specifically designed to be a go-to, last minute, folks-are-heading-over-and-what-the-heck-am-I-going-to-make-them-for dessert recipe. It’s important for every home cook to have a few recipes like this at their disposal and this one has been a real life-saver for me so many times.
I love fresh cherry recipes like my Fresh Cherry Cobbler and Fresh Cherry Crumb Cake. But, this recipe allows you to have the taste of summer all year long and at a moment’s notice.
And the best part, you get to skip the monotonous task of pitting mounds of cherries. Instead frozen cherries thaw quickly in the fridge and mix up beautifully, juices and all, to create this old-fashioned dessert.
Table of contents
Ingredient Notes
- Frozen cherries: I buy my bagged, frozen dark sweet cherries at Safeway but they are available in the frozen fruit section of most stores. Check the size as they may differ from the 12 ounce size used in this recipe. Also, be sure you purchase unsweetened (no sugar added) cherries.
- Cherry filling: The thawed frozen cherries are combined with a little fresh lemon juice, pure vanilla extract, and granulated sugar. All-purpose flour is added to thicken the juices.
- Almond crisp topping: All-purpose flour, old fashioned oats, light brown sugar, sliced almonds, salt, and butter.
How to Make Easy Cherry Crisp
- In a large bowl, toss cherries with lemon juice and vanilla. Add the granulated sugar and flour and stir to combine.
- Transfer the mixture to a greased baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, combine remaining flour, oats, brown sugar, part of the sliced almonds, and salt. Work in the butter with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the fruit, then sprinkle with the remaining almonds. Bake in preheated 375 degree F oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.
Make-Ahead Tips
This recipe is so easy that I have literally mixed it together while chatting with party guests in our kitchen. But if you’d like, the filling and crisp topping can be made up to 1 day in advance.
- Make the cherry filling and crisp topping and store them seperately in covered containers in the refrigerator.
- When ready to bake, scatter the crisp topping and remaining almonds over the cherry mixture and bake it as directed. If it’s very cold going in to the oven, you may need to increase the baking time.
Storage Tips
I recommend storing moist recipes like fruit crisps and crumbles in the refrigerator to keep them fresh longer. Just cover the cooled baking dish with plastic wrap or foil and store it in the fridge. It will be at its best if consumed within 3 or 4 days.
Leftovers are delicious served cold or at room temperature, but I love this dessert served slightly warm. Reheat individual servings for about 20 to 30 seconds in the microwave.
Serving Suggestions
Fruit desserts are delicious with freshly whipped cream, however, for us it’s all about the big scoop of vanilla ice cream over a mound of warm Cherry Crisp. It just doesn’t get much better than that. Especially in the summer months.
More Fruit Desserts You’ll Love
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Easy Cherry Crisp
Video
Ingredients
- 36 ounces frozen dark cherries, no sugar added, thawed (3 12-ounce bags)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, divided
- ¾ cup old fashioned oats
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup sliced almonds, divided
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup butter, cut into 1-inch slices
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly coat a 9- x 13-inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, toss cherries with lemon juice and vanilla. Add granulated sugar and ¼ cup flour and stir to combine. Pour into the prepared baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, combine remaining 1 ¼ cups flour, oats, brown sugar, ¼ cup sliced almonds, and salt. Work in the butter with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over the fruit. Sprinkle with remaining almonds.
- Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated using generic ingredients, and is an estimate not a guarantee. For more accurate results, please refer to the labels on your ingredients at home.
More Easy Dessert Ideas
This post was originally published on June 27, 2017. It has been updated with new text and images.
I made this for a very picky Irishman. Five stars! I always hate it when people change a recipe, however, I added just a hair of almond extract, along with the vanilla. Since the recipe already had almonds in it, I didn’t think it was a leap. I will make this again and again.
Love to hear this! Thanks, Deb. 🙂
I wish I could have seen the recipe…but the Google ads literally covered the entire thing and I could not make them go away. Sad.
I’m so sorry this happened and I appreciate the feedback! I’ll have it looked into. A tip for the future in case this happens again – just hit the Print button and the recipe will be reformatted on a new tab with no ads. Hope this helps and thanks again.
I found I had frozen cherries in the freezer, and then found this recipe. It went together quickly, and we both enjoyed it very much. Since there are only 2 of us, I reduced the recipe to 1/4, but as is was a bit dry, I poured about 2 T spoons of red wine on top for the last 15 min. of baking. Perfect.
Great way to use frozen cherries! I cut out the white sugar totally, added a teaspoon of cardamom to the cherries and topping. Delicious!