♪♫ ♪♫ Can she bake a bake a cherry pie crisp Billy Boy, Billy Boy? Can she bake a cherry pie crisp charming Billy? She can bake a cherry pie crisp as fast as an, um…..a cloud becomes a wisp…….. ♪♫ ♪♫. (Not much rhymes with crisp!!)
Yes, she can. And she did!
That’s me, every year, when Father’s Day rolls around I’m a cherry cookin’ fool. My husband Cliff has a thing for cherries. He pouts quite often that I don’t ever make cherry things. Soooo, come June, come rain or come shine, you’ll find me with dark red fingertips and Cliff with a big cherry stained smile.
This year I got down and homey, topping fresh, plump, deep-valentine-red cherries, with a buttery oatmeal crunch. Delicious. Not wow. Not OMIGAWD. Just plain old-fashioned, man that was good! Happy June!
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Here we go ……………………..I hunted, I scoured the second drawer with all the cheese knives, ice cream scoops, corkscrews, pastry brushes and (oh yay! there’s my butter paddles!) zesters , I combed and searched through the third drawer with all the spoons and flippers, the tongs, peelers and spatulas. Heck I even pulled out the bottom drawer pushing aside the juicers, the Hallowe’en jello molds and tortilla press, but do you think I could find my cherry pitter? Noooo! So this year I pitted by splitting every cherry in half and digging out that hidden stone. See I told you I had dark red fingertips!
Once pitted, toss the cherries with the cornstarch and sugar and plop them into a baking dish or pie plate. Make that irresistable oatmeal topping and spread over the cherries. Yes, it’s that easy!
Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour. Serve warm with ice cream.
SHE’S CHERRY CRISP
6 cups sweet cherries, pitted
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
*Optional – 3 tablespoons Amaretto
1 cup flour
¾ cup oatmeal
¾ cup brown sugar
2 pinches cinnamon
½ cup butter
Preheat oven to 375F. Toss cherries with sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Plop into baking dish or 10-inch pie plate.
To make the topping combine flour, oatmeal, brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Work butter in, squeezing and tossing the mixture with your hands until it is crumbly with about pea-sized clumps, some smaller, some bigger clumps. Oh yes, be sure to squeeze together just a few bigger clumps for extra crunchy goodness when baked!
Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour until the cherries are bubbly and the crunch on top is deliciously golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, or as Cliff prefers, chocolate ice cream.