Fruit Crisp
6 cups bing cherries, halved and pitted (or apples or peaches cut into chunks)
1 1/2 cups white flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons butter
water
(it should be noted that the amounts really depend on what size baking dish you’re using; mine was about 9 in. x 9 in.)
Preparation:
Wash, pit and halve the cherries. It could be really great if you have one of those cherry-pitters. I don’t, so I cut, twisted and then popped out the pits with my fingers. The cherry juice dyed my fingertips to hell, but it was a relaxing time-waster. If you use apples (this would be the best, in my opinion) then wash, peel, deseed and cut into chunks. Do the same for the peaches. After the fruit is cut, combine the flour, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and stir well. Cut up the butter into small pieces and mix it into the dry ingredients with a fork. Mash and stir away into crumbles start to form. After you’ve crumbled all you can crumble, add a bit of water and continue on your crumbling mission. A tablespoon or two should really do it; you don’t want a dough, just more little pieces. Now take your bowl of fruit and add a few spoonfuls of plain flour to it, stiring just enough to lightly coat all of the pieces (this will help make a bit more syrup as the fruit cooks). Now, take a pat of butter and lightly grease up your baking dish. Follow by lightly flouring it. Pour the fruit into the dish evenly, then top with the crumb mixture. Now, I baked this at 350 degrees F for 1 hour 15 minutes, but it should be noted that my oven is 25 years old and the temps may be a bit off. A good rule is to cook it until the fruit is bubbling along the side and a fork inserted in the very middle for a few seconds is seriously hot upon removal.
I made this last night and it was really good. It would have been even better on some vanilla ice cream.