Cherry Crumble

Sweet and a little bit tart, this cherry crumble is made with fresh or frozen cherries and a simple crumb topping. This is easy, real summer baking at its best. Crumbles are made without oats so the topping here is just flour, sugar, butter, and a little vanilla. A hint of lemon really brightens up the cherry base!

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

How This Recipe Works

Crisps and crumbles are staple recipes for most bakers, and especially for anyone with a garden or good access to fruit. Nothing beats a good fruit crumble especially if it's been made with seasonal fruit. This version works with fresh or frozen cherries - keep in mind that frozen are also picked at their peak they taste fantastic - depending on what you have on hand.

The cherry filling is kept simple, with a little lemon zest for extra brightness, but we want the cherries to shine. We've also chosen to use all white sugar for the crumb topping so we found that brown sugar muddied the flavour a bit.

This is a cherry crumble, with a streusel topping made without oats. If you'd like an oat version you can make our cherry crisp recipe instead. While we all grew up making crisps and crumbles from when we first started baking, it's one thing to eyeball it and another to develop a recipe that's works out every time, consistently, even for absolute beginner bakers. I developed and tested this recipe.

Ingredients You'll Need and Why

Frozen cherries are a great low-effort, year-round option, but if you're lucky enough to have fresh local cherries use them! We have some excellent cherries in Canada and definitely choose them when in season. These are our notes from recipe testing and you can find the full recipe card below with complete measurements and instructions.

• Cherries: fresh or frozen. Chopsticks and metal straws are the best ways to pit cherries if you don't have a cherry pitter. We like to use a mix of sweet and sour cherries but you can use all sweet if you prefer a sweeter crumble.
• Sugar: granulated white sugar. Cane sugar is a good substitute.
• Lemon: use an unwaxed organic lemon if you can find one, since you are going to use the zest along with the juice. Orange is a good substitution.
• Flour: this should be plain all-purpose flour. Use up to 50% whole wheat flour if you'd like. We haven't tested this recipe specifically with a gluten-free flour blend but it should be fine.
• Butter: cold salted butter is best. Unsalted can be used, but add a pinch of salt to the streusel topping. If you need a dairy-free alternative, use a vegan butter than comes in stick or block form and note that the topping will be slightly softer.
• Starch: corn starch added to the fruit base thickens the fruit juices, just like in a pie, so that it's not thin and soupy after baking.

How to Make Cherry Crumble

Both elements are mixed in the same bowl so you have less dishes to wash. While you could try mixing the cherry base right in the baking dish, it's unnecessarily messy, hard to mix, and usually results in an uneven filling because the starch clumps more when it hasn't been mixed properly.

Step 1: mix the cherries, lemon zest and juice, sugar, and starch in a mixing bowl and transfer to the baking dish. Gently shake the dish to even out the fruit, or use a spoon to move the cherries into an even layer.

Step 2: mix the flour, sugar, butter, and vanilla for the crumb topping. It's best to use your hands for this (see this post for more guidance). It should be the texture of large bread crumbs, with some larger pieces throughout.

Step 3: crumble the topping in an even layer over the cherries. Break up any much larger pieces before adding. You want it to be pretty even to avoid over- or under-baking different parts of the crumble.

Step 4: bake until bubbling and lightly golden, about 50 minutes. Place a baking sheet under the dish while baking to avoid any fruit juice bubbling over and burning to the bottom of your oven.

Expert Tips for the Best Crumble

• Bake until bubbling: to thicken properly, the filling needs to boil. If it doesn't reach that point, not only will it not set properly, it'll also have an unpleasant mouthfeel (starchy!).
• Cool before serving: give your cherry crumble at least 15 minutes to rest before serving. This not only makes it cool enough to eat, but also lets the base set enough to be exactly the right consistency.
• Serve with: try plain vanilla ice cream, sweet cream ice cream, or even lemon or lemon meringue ice cream. If you prefer cream use plain whipped cream or get a little fancy with mascarpone cream, which will keep its shape and cuts through the sweetness.
• Make syrup: Alex shared a video a while back on how to make cherry pit syrup, and it's a great way to use something that would otherwise be tossed. The fruit remnants attached to the pits make a beautiful syrup.

More Cherry Recipes

• Cherry Crumble Cake
• Cherry Peach Crisp
• Chocolate Cherry Cake
• Cherry Blondies with Almonds