Cherry Oat Crumble
Ingredients
6 tablespoons sugar
1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
4 cups tart cherries, pitted, fresh or frozen
¾ teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons whole wheat flour
6 tablespoons old fashioned rolled oats
3 tablespoons brown sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a large bowl.
3. Add the cherries and stir to mix. Add the vanilla and mix again.
4. Pour the fruit into an 8 x 8 baking pan or 2 quart casserole.
5. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar, and salt. Add the melted butter and mix together until the texture is coarse with some clumps. Distribute the oat topping over the fruit.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30-45 minutes, or until the juices are bubbling and the oat toping is golden brown.
7. Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours
Comment
I made this recipe with apricots instead of cherries. I served tastes of the recipe at several classes and events, and it was a very popular recipe. Adults and children both really liked it and a lot of people asked for the recipe and said they were going to make it. I did feel it was a bit light on the "crumble", so I increased the oats a bit for what I felt was a better fruit/topping ratio.
We made this recipe with fresh sweet cherries we received from the food bank. Since the recipe calls for tart cherries, we decided to cut the sugar of the filling in half, and it tasted great! Went over very well with kiddos and parents at a summer meals taste test. Because we were making a double batch and didn't have access to an oven, we also opted to prepare this recipe in a skillet, cooking at a lower temperature (300 degrees) for a shorter period of time (20 minutes), then turning the skillet off but keeping it covered to allow the crumble to crisp up for about half an hour. These time and temperature adjustments worked very well!