Warm Cherry Almond Crisp

This cherry crisp was amazing! I am so glad that I made it for my friend Corrine and I was very excited to have the leftovers to myself!

Growing up in my family, we always had mom's blueberry crisp in the summer and apple crisp in the fall. The terrible thing about those crisps mom made, is that they always smelled so incredible and she would leave them to cool on top of the stove.  I always sneaked down to the kitchen to get little bits of loose crumbly topping and the occasional blueberry. Yum!

This crisp is very different than my mom's original fruit crisps. The crumbly crust is a very different texture but equally delicious and easy to pick little bits off to taste. The cherries were incredible and so rich. When I make this again, I will cut the cherries in half, a whole cherry  is a mouthful and since I didn't wait very long, the cherries were still so hot! Yes I burned my mouth because I didn't want to have to sit in my apartment and go nuts waiting for the crisp to cool. Corrine, Nichole and I ate nearly half of the crisp for lunch with my cheesy sloppy joes. I had to deal with the momentous task of cleaning up the remainder of my cherry crisp... lets just say that I got the job done. It was well done and the plate was very clean when I had finished! This is a must make for any season!

Cherry and Almond Crisp
recipe adapted from Foodess.com

6 cups pitted cherries (I use frozen)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup chopped pecans or sliced almonds
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 375˚F
I didn't cut the cherries up but I recommend you cut them in half. Toss the cherries with cornstarch and sugar in a baking dish (you can use any size, a smaller one will give you a thicker topping. Foodess used 9 x 13 inch and I used a 9 inch pie plate).

Mix remaining dry ingredients in a small bowl, and add butter using your fingers to make coarse crumbs (I like to press some of the topping into larger clumps).
Bake for 45 – 55 minutes, until crumble is golden brown, and filling is thick and bubbling over the topping. Serve with vanilla ice cream sprinkled with cinnamon. Enjoy!

Note:
Before taking the cherry crisp out of the oven, I added 3 tablespoons of butter, chopped into tiny pieces and placed sporadically on the crisp. I put the crisp back into the oven for 10 minutes more. The additional butter really brought out the flavor of the topping and made it sensational!

This crisp is beautiful and smells amazing!

All Gone...