Bourbon Cherry Crisp

To showcase cherries in their prime, I try to make at least 1 cherry dessert each summer. Cherry pie with my favorite flaky pie crust is typically my default.

But this year I had a hard time deciding on a cherry dessert, so I asked you in my latest recipe testing post which you prefer: (1) streusel-topped crisp or (2) biscuit-topped cobbler. The results were pretty even, but the majority swayed toward crisp. There’s a lot of love out there for berry cobbler (and traditional pie crust, of course!), but nothing can live up to heaps of oatmeal streusel. Biscuits will never be streusel.

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MORE CHERRY DESSERTS

• Cherry Pastry Pies
• Homemade Cherry Pie
• Cherry Almond Buckle
• Easy Cherry Cobbler

Behind the Recipe

Cherry crisp is a really simple dessert, but it delivers impressive flavor and texture. Here’s why cherry crisp is so easy:

1. No need to mess with pie dough: no rolling anything out, waiting for it to chill, or stressing over a pie dough cracking. A main reason why we all love peach crisp, strawberry crisp, and apple crisp too!
2. You only need 2 bowls: 1 for fruit, 1 for topping. Mix both components separately then layer into a dish and bake.
3. No need to wait for the dessert to cool down before eating. Serve, eat, enjoy warm. Most definitely with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.
4. Quick. Done and on the table in an hour.

What may take you the most time is pitting those cherries. Pitting cherries is the pits. You’ll save a lot of time and headache using a cherry pitter. I only pull mine out once or twice a year and whenever I clean out my gizmos and gadgets drawer (the official name), I ask myself if I really need this thing? And then I remember spending about 12 hours pitting cherries a few years ago for 1 pie and realized that cherry pitters, while only used a handful of times, is LITERALLY THE BEST INVENTION. And guess what? If you want to avoid all that, use frozen cherries instead. See my recipe note about substituting.

Which Cherries?

Use your favorite cherry variety. I chose a mix of rainier cherries and dark sweet cherries. You can use all rainier or all dark sweet– or if you opt for sour cherries, add a little extra sugar. See my recipe note below.

This is Exactly What Your Cherry Desserts Have Been Missing

Now I’m not much of a bourbon drinker, but I know that cherries and bourbon are a dynamite flavor pairing. I tossed a little into the filling and as I tasted my first spoonful, I knew exactly what all of my cherry desserts have been missing. Bourbon. You don’t need much—just a splash. But those couple tablespoons will catapult your cherry crisp from “great” to “I’m eating this entire cherry crisp and I’m not sharing.”

When I first tested this recipe, I tried reducing the bourbon down before using in the filling, but I found that step was unnecessary. When I tried the recipe with a simple pour of bourbon straight from the bottle, it was awesome. And obviously easier since it saves a step.

You won’t feel tipsy after eating a serving, though I’m sure you won’t feel like roses if you down the entire dessert. Like with my bourbon sweet potato pie, you can tell something unique is baked in, but the booze doesn’t overpower anything else.

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Which Bourbon?

Since the bourbon is being used in a recipe and you only need a couple Tablespoons, no need to purchase the really fancy stuff. Any middle of the road bourbon is great. I used Jim Beam.

Streusel Topping

Nothing but basics come together to make the streusel topping so not only does it taste dreamy, it’s both easy and convenient. You need the same ingredients we use for apple crisp—brown sugar, oats, butter, cinnamon, and flour. I added sliced almonds for some added crunch, but you can skip them for a nut-free dessert. I went back and forth about adding cinnamon, but quickly came to my senses because oatmeal desserts are nothing without cinnamon and cinnamon makes everything taste like grandma’s baking. So, cinnamon is a non-negotiable.

The streusel topping is what I use for apple cranberry crumble pie and blueberry crumble pie. The trick with this crumble topping—so that it doesn’t melt and lose a lot of texture—is to use very cold butter, just like with pie crust and homemade biscuits. Mix brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon together then cut in cubed and cold butter. I add the oats last because I don’t want them to break down when I cut the butter in. Whole oats  = more of the texture we crave.

And if you want an upgraded bourbon cherry crisp, use the brown butter streusel topping from my blueberry peach crisp. It’s so very good. Or if you need a gluten free alternative you can use the topping from my gluten free apple crisp. And if you want a bourbon cherry cobbler, halve the topping recipe that I use for peach cobbler. Also so very good.

PS: Any size close to a 9-inch baking dish works for this recipe.

More Summer Dessert Recipes

• Fruit Pizza
• Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches & Berry Icebox Cake
• Blueberry Pie
• Peach Cobbler
• Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

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