Cherry Crumble Recipe
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Cherry crumbles are wonderful – they are like cherry pies without the fuss. EASY. And the crumbly crisp almond topping is a perfect match to those juicy plump cherries. Even though I’ve enjoyed cherry crumble several times this week, I still wish I had leftovers. It’s just THAT good! P.S. Kids love it too.
My husband and son went cherry picking this week and brought home 35lbs of gorgeous sweet cherries so we’re baking up all kinds of delicious cherry desserts. We’ve made three of these cherry crumbles this week (and shared them of course), but they disappear fast!
Ingredients for Cherry Crumble Filling:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour *measured correctly
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 lbs fresh or frozen sweet cherries, pitted
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (from 1/2 lemon)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Ingredients for the Topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour *measured correctly
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/8 tsp salt
8 Tbsp (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, diced
½ cup quick cooking oats
1 cup sliced almonds, divided
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to serve, optional
How to Make a Cherry Crumble:
Prep: Preheat oven to 350˚F. Pit Cherries.
1. For the Filling: In a small bowl, stir together 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup sugar.
2. In a medium bowl, toss cherries with 2 Tbsp lemon juice and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Sprinkle the top with your flour/sugar mixture and stir to evenly coat cherries. Transfer cherries to a 9×13 or 9×12 baking dish.
For the Topping:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine: 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and 1/8 tsp salt. Pulse to combine. Add 1 stick diced cold butter and pulse until butter is pea-sized.
2. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl, add 1/2 cup oats and use your hands to make large crumbs, rubbing the mixture between your fingers. Add 1/2 cup shaved almonds and toss to combine.
3. Spread the crumble topping evenly over the cherries and sprinkle on the second 1/2 cup sliced almonds. Bake uncovered at 350˚F for 45 minutes, or until almonds are golden brown and cherry juices are bubbling at the edges. Let crumble cool at least 15 minutes before serving; cherry juices will thicken as it cools.
Food bloggers exercise a lot of self control not to eat their samples before taking pictures
Cherry Crumble Recipe
Ingredients
For the Filling:
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 lbs fresh or frozen sweet cherries, pitted
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, from 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
For the Topping:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 8 Tbsp 1 stick cold, unsalted butter, diced
- ½ cup quick cooking oats
- 1 cup sliced almonds, divided
- Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to serve, optional
Instructions
Prep: Preheat oven to 350˚F. Pit Cherries.
For the Cherry Filling:
-
In a small bowl, stir together 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup sugar.
-
In a medium bowl, toss cherries with 2 Tbsp lemon juice and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Sprinkle the top with your flour/sugar mixture and stir to evenly coat cherries. Transfer cherries to a 9x13 or 9x12 baking dish.
For the Topping:
-
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine: 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and 1/8 tsp salt. Pulse to combine. Add 1 stick diced cold butter and pulse until butter is pea-sized.
-
Transfer mixture to a medium bowl, add 1/2 cup oats and use your hands to make large crumbs, rubbing the mixture between your fingers. Add 1/2 cup shaved almonds and toss to combine.
-
Spread the crumble topping evenly over the cherries and sprinkle on the second 1/2 cup sliced almonds. Bake uncovered at 350˚F for 45 minutes, or until almonds are golden brown and cherry juices are bubbling at the edges. Let crumble cool at least 15 minutes before serving; cherry juices will thicken as it cools.
Recipe Notes
If you are making it with frozen cherries, make sure to defrost them completely or crumble will need to bake a little longer.
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Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. mmm.
Are cherries in season where you live? I’d love to hear how you enjoy your cherries!
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
How would I need to change the recipe for tart cherries instead?
Hi! I have not tested it with tart cherries but probably need to add more sugar.
This was perfect! Made it with Swerve and it worked great. The next time I made it, I only had 6T butter so I used almond flour (it took nearly 2c), and I doubled the oats because we love them. I had so much topping that I put 2/3 of it in the bottom of the pan and used 1/3 as topping. Because I bake in a toaster oven, I reduced heat by 25 degrees. It was STILL perfect! Next time, I’ll bake the bottom first, then add the cherries and topping. Because it was a toaster oven, I had to cover after 20 mins, and only baked for 40. When I subbed the almond flour, I left out the almonds but will definitely add some next time for that toasted almond flavor!
The almond flavor is definitely nice and so is the crunch from the almonds. I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe.
This is the best crumble I’ve ever, ever made. And it’s dangerous to have when you live alone. But helps mentally during covid
Hey Laurie, thank you for your wonderful review and comments! I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe.
Do you thaw the cherries if using frozen?
Hi Sue, one of our readers, Irina made the following recommendation: “If your making it with frozen cherries make sure you defrost the cherries completely or you will need to bake it a little longer. Otherwise, the cobbler will be slightly warm in the middle and the topping will not be completely done. I had to bake mine a little longer, but it was still good! “
Could you use old fashioned oats instead?
Hi Hannah, I honestly haven’t tried that yet to advise. If you do an experiment, please share with us too how it goes.
I used old fashioned oats with your cherry crumble recipe and it works fine. I have made strawberry & blueberry crisp recipes with just old fashioned oats as well.
Thank you for the delicious recipe, I followed it to a T and it was a hit with the whole family, the toasted almond slices on top takes it to next level and makes it a show stopper!
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Alison!
Should the pan be greased before the cherry mixture is poured in?
Hi Sheila, it isn’t necessary since the cherries are so juicy, there usually is not an issue with sticking, but you can if you prefer. It wouldn’t hurt 🙂
Natasha, could I make this crumble topping with an already prepared pie filling? If so, how long should I bake it for? I have frozen blackberries, which I’m planning to make my own pie filling with.
Hi Christina, I haven’t tested that to advise on a time but I think it could work. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe
Looks yummy👌 Natasha what would you recommend if I want to prep this 8 hrs before baking? Can I assemble everything and keep it in a fridge when ready to bake or is it better to bake it and then heat it up? Thanks
Hi Lana, I think it would be great either way 🙂 You can prep it 8 hours before baking and refrigerate or bake and reheat (it does reheat well)
Its July 6th and my sour cherry tree is in its prime. All the cherries are ready to be picked. This recipe looks amazing. Going to see if I can record making it for my youtube channel and will totally give you props for this. I’ve bee searching around and your recipe looks the most appealing. Thank you for sharing!
I hope you love the recipe!
Made it and we enjoyed it tremendously. I did have to mix sweet fruit with my sour cherries but it worked out well.I know your recipe calls for sweet which would have saved me this step. That almond crumble is amazing. Thanks again!!
My pleasure! I’m glad you enjoy the recipe! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks for the recipe. I substituted the 1 C AP flour with home milled soft wheat flour. Followed the rest of the recipe to the T. It turned out fantastic. My wife, daughter and my neighbor enjoyed it too. Everyone went for seconds!
Partha, I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review!
Can it be frozen? Baked or unbaked?
Hi Rhonda! I haven’t had a chance to freeze or experiment with that. If you test it out, please let me know how you like that.
John, did you made sure to use correct amount of butter? I think regular oats would work fine in this recipe if you wanted to substitute.
Do you think this would work with canned tart cherries?
I haven’t tried with canned tart cherries so you’ll have to experiment ;). I think it might work but you may need more sugar since my cherries were sweet.
I tried this recipe today and the topping has far too much flour. I couldn’t even use all the topping, there was too much of it. The flour didn’t all cook in which means some of the topping looks uncooked. There’s flour dust on the top. I won’t be using this recipe again. By the way, your star rating doesn’t work. I clicked to give this recipe one star and it automatically chose 5 stars. Really?
HI Sandy, did you crumble the flour mixture until it looked like the mixture in step 2? If you were seeing flour on top, it probably needed to be crumbled more. Also, the star rating is part of a pluggin that I use – I’ll look into that as that is definitely not normal. It appears to be working for me on desktop. Are you on a desktop computer or mobile?
I used 1/2 a cup flour, and canned cherry pie filling. FABULOUS!!!! Everyone had seconds!
I”m so happy to hear that! Thank you 🙂
I made it today! It’s a little on the sweeter side, maybe will use tarter cherries next time, but we all loved it. Thanks for the good recipes, Natasha!
Thank you for the review Inna and you are welcome :).
This sounds amazing. My mamyla went to our local Mennonite farm and picked a whole bucket yesterday. She didnt leave the stems on and now they are so soft:(..Should they still be ok for this recipe? Also, any tips f for chopping almonds quickly? Thanks for the deliciousness!
I usually just buy the almonds pre-sliced because I don’t think it’s possible to slice them that way at home. You can always pulse them in a food processor, but they won’t be as pretty as the sliced ones. The soft cherries should still work fine 🙂
oh dear , it looks great . in my country – Iran- we use sour cherry for cooking a kind of food that called,”Albalo poulo”. in this recipe sour cherries were cooked with rice and meatballs. and also we use all kind of cherry for making jam ، pottage،tea and also cake and desserts. especially we eat them such dried fruit in winter. I don’t know you have in your culture fruit leather or fruit rolls up? cherry’s rolls up are best traditional goods.
Ukrainian people use a lot of sour cherries in recipes as well. Cherry fruit rollups sound amazing! We will have to get more cherries to make that since we just finished ours up last night.
I just wanted to comment on how yummy this cobbler was (served it with vanilla ice cream of course). Just delicious!! However, if your making it with frozen cherries make sure you defrost the cherries completely or you will need to bake it a little longer. Otherwise the cobbler will be slightly warm in the middle and the topping will not be completely done. I had to bake mine a little longer, but it was still good! Thanks for another great recipe!
Irina, thank you for the great review and for the tip on the frozen cherries :).
Would this work with frozen cherries when they are not in season?
Ellen, yes, frozen cherries would work well. However, when using frozen cherries, make sure to defrost them completely or you will need to bake it a little longer. Otherwise the crumble will be slightly warm in the middle and the topping will not be completely done.
I’m definitely trying this one! Another great one for cherries is cherry claufoutis–easy and delicious as well!
Oooh that does sound good! I’ve never made one before. Do you have a good recipe you could share?
Here’s the one I use:
http://www.chow.com/recipes/29695-cherry-clafoutis-clafouti
great for breakfast too!
Wonderful! thank you!!
Natasha, What size pan do you use for this delicious cherry dish? Your photograph of the dish looks amazing. Love your blog.
Oh sorry I missed that. It’s a 9×12 but a 9×13 could be used just as well. This dish is by Le Creuset 🙂
Would this taste good with blueberries mixed in? I am thinking this would look beautiful for Fourth of July but I am not sure if the blueberry’s would taste any good with this. Suggestions?
Yes!! They sure would. Great idea!
Do you have a quick way of pitting the cherries?
I use the OXO Cherry Pitter
. If you don’t have one, you can also use a chopstick, but the cherry pitter is the quickest.
Looks absolutely yummy! Definitely something I will try before the cherries are out of season. Can this be put together ahead of time (say 3 or 4 hrs) before baking or will the cherries loose too much juice? Or maybe it can be baked and just reheated in the oven before serving? Id like to make this for a gathering but wont have the time to make it right then, Please advise. I would assume that it would taste the best fresh out of the oven. Also, is this something you can make anytime of year with frozen pitted cherries?
You can bake it and reheat it before serving. It reheats well 🙂 It can also be served at room temp. This would work well with frozen pitted cherries as well.
35lbs? Oh my, that sounds wonderful!! 🙂 All the desserts one can bake with that much cherries! are you also freezing them or making cherry jams? This cherry crumble looks delicious, Natasha!!
I don’t think we have enough left to make jam but we did freeze a bunch because our son looooves to munch on them in winter time. 🙂
Wow! This cherry cobbler looks amazing! What a perfect summer dessert! I wish I could just stop by your house and pick some up! Yum!
It’s all gone :(, but we still have more cherries!! 🙂
Oh how delicious is this! I love how crisp and clear the pictures look, makes me want to devour the cherries off the screen 🙂
Thanks so much Katy 🙂 The worst part will be a month from now when I spot these pictures and cherry season is over… 😉
Do you add the other half cup of almonds over the crumble at the beginning of the bake time or closer to the end so they don’t burn?
Oh my goodness I can’t believe I forgot that part. You add them over the top before putting them in the oven. They won’t burn 🙂 Thanks for asking!!
Anything you can substitute for almonds?
You can use walnuts. If you want to go nut free, try pumpkin seeds. It still tastes great without the nuts, but it doesn’t look as nice out of the oven. The nuts add to the nice texture.
I’ve been tossing a few cherries into smoothies recently. I find it hard to use them up before they get squishy! In the event of hot weather I might just make a sauce or pie filling on the stovetop and serve it over ice cream so I don’t have to use the oven.
I love crumbles because I hate making pie crust! I usually do this with apples, but I’ve never tried it with cherries. I love the addition of almonds in your recipe!
Here’s a tip for longer lasting cherries: pick them with the stem on and they store in the fridge twice as long. A cherry sauce over ice cream sounds heavenly!
I think mixing red & yellow cherries would be gorgeous, a real show stopper in this recipe! The sliced almonds on top are a nice twist too. When I think of crumbles, I always think of Poirot in Agatha Christies novels savoring a good English crumble. And I find I always want a good crumble after eating a really hearty meal.
Yes I agree a red and yellow mix would be amazing!!
Mmmmm This looks sooo good! We ate all the red cherries we picked and only have yellow cherries left, do you think they will work for this recipe? Thanks 🙂
I think the yellow cherries are the best! Yellow chairs will work just as well in the scramble. As long as they are sweet cherries they will work well. I guess sour cherries would work also but you would need more sugar for those.