Cherry Crumble

An Easy Cherry Crumble Recipe for Summer

Summer is my favorite time of year for fruit because everything is flavorful, fresh, and usually fairly local. And I love turning a farmer's market haul into delicious desserts! When I'm not baking peach blueberry cobbler, berry crumble, or strawberry rhubarb crisp, I'm grabbing a bag of organic cherries to make this easy cherry crumble. The filling is fresh, bright, sweet, and tart all at the same time, baked under a buttery oat topping. The whole thing is gluten-free, vegan, and absolutely a cinch to make.

I love making this dessert for backyard BBQs. It's great for feeding a crowd, and you can bake a tray of this the day before and reheat it slightly before serving. And if you lay out some vanilla ice cream, it'll surely be kid-approved as well!

Ingredients you'll Need

This recipe has two parts: the cherry filling and the crumble topping. Both are vegan and gluten-free, made from the following ingredients. Scroll to the recipe card for the exact measurements.

Cherry Filling

• Cherries – Fresh cherries, preferably organic and mostly dark red. You could make the filling with frozen cherries, though you'll need to thaw and drain them first.
• Arrowroot starch – Helps to thicken the filling a little bit and hold in the juices.
• Coconut sugar – You could use any sweetener you'd like.
• Cinnamon – For a little warmth and depth of flavor. Feel free to use nutmeg, ginger, or a pie spice blend.
• Almond extract – Adds a really nice, unique flavor to the filling. Use pure vanilla extract if you prefer.
• Lemon juice – Brings out the tartness of the cherries and helps with the juiciness.

Crumble Topping

And then for our topping, we're actually using some of my favorite Bob's Red Mill products. They are the best suppliers for all my gluten-free baking needs! For our gluten-free crumble topping, we're using:

• Gluten-free rolled oats – I like to use old-fashioned rolled oats for a crunchy, chewy texture. Instant oats tend to be mushy, and steel-cut oats are too tough.
• Quinoa flour – I like to use a combination of flours in the topping.
• Sorghum flour – I wanted to try the topping with this, and it really worked. You could also use more quinoa flour if you want!
• Coconut oil – Adds a really nice flavor and helps the topping with that clumpy, crispy texture.
• Maple syrup – The BEST sweetener of all time, but you can also use coconut sugar.

3 Ways to Pit a Cherry

The only downside of fresh cherries is that you'll need to pit them! What you need to pit cherries are time and patience. But it helps to have a few useful tools and techniques at your disposal, too. The final result will be a delicious dessert, so it's worth it. In my experience, the three best ways to pit cherries are:

1. Cherry pitter: A cherry pitter is a little kitchen gadget specifically designed to pit cherries (and olives!), and it makes this process a complete breeze.
2. Metal straw: This is the method I use. I take a metal straw in one hand, cup the cherry in the other, and push the straw through the center of the cherry, pushing the pit out the other side. It's a bit of a messier method, but it works well!
3. Paring knife: The last, longer method is to use a small paring knife to cut the cherry in half, and then remove the pit with your hands.

How to Make Cherry Crumble

Once you've gotten past the pitting of your cherries, making the crumble itself is a breeze.

1. Make the filling. Combine all the cherry filling ingredients in a bowl. Stir to coat the cherries, and transfer the filling to a baking dish.
2. Make the topping. Add the crumble topping ingredients to another bowl and mix. The topping should be slightly sticky and clumpy. Those clumps will crisp up as they bake to make the crunchy topping. Spread the crumble over the cherries in the dish.
3. Bake! Bake the cherry crumble at 350ºF for 50-60 minutes. As the crumble bakes, look for two things: browning and bubbles. You want the top to be golden brown and the cherries to be bubbling. This takes around 50-55 minutes, so if the topping starts to brown too quickly before it's done, cover it with foil to keep it from burning.

What to Serve with Cherry Crumble

If you are planning on serving this as a dessert, it's best with ice cream. I like to choose a coconut-based vegan vanilla ice cream, but this also works great with homemade banana ice cream, chocolate, cherry, pistachio, or even a lemon sorbet.

But what's even better about this crumble is that you can enjoy the leftovers for breakfast. A bowl of warm cherry crumble topped with coconut yogurt is the perfect treat on a summer morning!

More Fruit Crisp & Crumble Recipes

• Peach Crisp
• Gluten-Free Apple Crisp
• Pumpkin Crisp
• Stone Fruit Quinoa Crumble
• Banana Blueberry Crumble