Cherry Crisp

The one thing I don't like about making a fruit crisp, or really anything with a streusel topping, is cutting the butter into the flour/oat mixture. Recently, however, I saw a recipe that used melted butter, so I gave that technique a try, and it worked! I need to remember to do that every time. These proportions seemed to work well.

Cherry Crisp

One can (21 oz.) cherry pie filling
4 cups frozen Bing cherries, thawed*
1/2 cup dried cherries
1 1/2 cups oats
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

Combine three types of cherries and place in baking dish. Combine remaining ingredients and sprinkle on top. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes. Serve warm or cold, plain or with ice cream or whipped cream, or both.

*The fresh cherries I bought at the grocery store were bland and tasteless. So disappointing! However, I couldn't just throw them out, so I pitted them and stuck them in the freezer. While looking for a dairy-free dessert idea, I noticed some cans of cherry pie filling in the pantry and thought maybe mixing the two would give the "sweet" cherries some flavor. It definitely helped. We also discovered that the dessert tasted even better the day after, which was a nice surprise.