Berry (or Cherry) Crisp

 

My very favorite dessert growing up was my grandma’s berry pie.  Crisps are also great and one of my favorite desserts because, like pie, you can make them with so many different types of fruit and you can’t really go wrong.

Crisps are kind of like pie, but with the “crust” only on the top.  You can eat it cold, but why not take some of the fall chill off and have a piece after it has cooled slightly from the oven?   Here I made a marionberry crisp and then later made some slight variations to the recipe which you can see at the end of this post.  If you are so lucky to live in the NW and are able to get some marionberries, I highly recommend them. YUM!!   Traditionally, I would make crisps with oats, but since I don’t eat oats much anymore, this recipe was great with the crunchiness of some nuts.  You could also chop the nuts really fine for less of a crunch.

For Filling:

• 3 1/2 cups marionberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1 tbsp of honey
• 3 tbsp of toasted hazelnuts
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp of juice from a lemon
• 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla
• 1 tbsp tapioca powder

For Topping:

• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 1/3 cup sliced hazelnuts
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 4 tablespoons of butter

Preheat oven to 350.

Chop up the hazelnuts and toast on medium heat in a dry pan.  This shouldn’t take too long.  You don’t want them to burn so make sure to flip them.

Keep berries to the side.  Mix filling ingredients together, making sure to save some hazelnuts for the topping, then mix with the berries.

 

Put filling into an 8 x8 pan.  I didn’t grease my pan and all was right with the world, so don’t worry about that.

Next, mix together the topping ingredients with the butter cut up into pieces, mixing it all together  with a fork.  The mixture will end up crumbly and sticky.  Crumble topping onto filling. It won’t cover up the entire pan, this is okay too, no worries.  This is what is supposed to happen. Bake for about 20 minutes.

 

Remove from oven and cool about 15 minutes and serve warm.

This is delicious plain, over some coconut ice cream, or maybe with a bit of cream poured on top.  Sinful!!

 

For the Cherry Crisp:  Make sure cherries are pitted (I learned this the hard way once).  Replace the vanilla with 1-1/2 teaspoons of almond extract and replace the hazelnuts with almonds, toasting them the same way.