Cherry Crumble


I got some amazing fresh cherries in my fruit share.  Cherries are the ultimate summer fruit and I love them.

I decided to make a crumble because it is one of the easiest ways to cook fruit of any kind.  A crumble is like a really laid back pie.  I'm not sure if crumble is used to describe this dish by anyone but me, but I call it that because the topping is all crumbley. 

In the topping I decided to use almonds.  Cherries and almonds go well together because they have similar flavors from being closely related, in the same genus (that is one step up from species).  This is the genus "prunus" which is also characterized by the fact that many of the species have traces of cyanide in them.  In fact cyanide smells/tastes like bitter almonds: "It was inevitable; the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love." (Love in the Time of Cholera).  Don't worry, though, this dish is totally safe.

Vanilla also goes well with almond, so I sprinkled some vanilla sugar on top of my cobbler.
There were a lot of different flavors in this dish, but I think they all blended really well.  I mostly made it up on a whim so I was glad it turned out so well.

Cherry Cobbler

FILLING
3 cups pitted cherries
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp brandy
TOPPING
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 tbsp brown sugar
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix all filling ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minute.
3. Pour filling into 9x9 baking pan or small casserole dish. Let cool.
4. Mix all topping ingredients into a coarse mixture. Distribute evenly over filling.
5. Cook 25 minutes.
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5 comments:

  1. I am going raspberry picking. Would this work with raspberries do you think? But then the ingredients wouldn't be such close cousins with poetic references to unrequited love. I'll eat the raspberries on cereal and wait for the neighbor's cherries to ripen.

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  2. You could absolutely make this with raspberries, however you wouldn't need to cook the raspberries before hand and you may want to have a bit more sugar since raspberries tend to be a bit more tart. I think if you made it as a cobbler with a buttermilk crust it would be delicious.

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  3. Maybe you should try this recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/07/raspberry-brown-sugar-gratin/. I think it would be perfect :)

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  4. I went out to the tree and every last cherry was gone. They were there yesterday! Bizare!

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  5. It's those silly birds, eating all the cherries.

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