Hi, I'm Jenny Finke, the gluten-free blogger behind Good For You Gluten Free. I write about gluten-free living and advocacy and I love creating gluten-free recipes and experimenting in the kitchen.
I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2012. Before my diagnosis, I would eat - and cook - in such a carefree way. However, today I have to watch everything that crosses my lips because it's easy for me to get sick when eating something someone else prepared.
The good news is that while I have celiac disease and I must follow a strict gluten-free diet, I rarely miss out on noshing on delicious foods.
My weakness is that I often have a hankering for something sweet. Eh, don't we all?
That's why when my sweet tooth is coming at me hard, it's time to whip up my own fun desserts at home. Homemade desserts are not only the safest for me to eat, but they are usually the best tasting too.
I've partnered with Honeyville to create a fun dessert recipe featuring this season's key ingredient - fruit! Fruit desserts, while still sugary, make me a feel a little less guilty about indulging in dessert. At least I'm eating a piece of fruit along with the sugar and butter and more sugar, right? OK, I kid on that front, dessert is not good for you, per se, but if you balance healthy foods with treats, on occasion, you'll be just fine.
Last week my family and I were in Palisades, Colorado where we visited a cherry and apricot farm. (The farm also grows peaches, but the peaches weren't in season yet.)
We picked the reddest tart cherries I've ever seen. These are the kind of cherries you put in a cherry pie or make maraschino cherries out of (vs. the sweet bing cherries you get at most grocery stores). My kids picked a bag full of cherries and of course were asking - I mean begging - me to make a cherry pie.
Well, making a gluten-free pie crust is a lot of work and the results are usually lackluster. I rarely make pie anymore. It's not worth it unless there's gluten in it (which I can't do).
So instead of pie I told my kids I would make a tart cherry crisp - a win-win!
I am so pleased with the results. The cherries were tart but sweet, and it almost felt like I was eating a crustless cherry pie with a streusel-like topping. Yummy!
You can make this gluten-free tart cherry crisp with ease at home - it only requires a few ingredients. I know you can't pick the tart cherries from the trees like we did, but you can purchase frozen tart cherries at most grocery stores and you will likely find them fresh at farmer's markets too. Please note that I used half fresh tart cherries and half fresh bing cherries in this recipe, mainly because we didn't pick enough cherries to fill the pie plate! If I had only known I needed more to fill the pie plate I would have had the kids pick more - oh well!
Despite my gaffe, having two kinds of cherries worked well in this recipe. It was fun to guess which kind of cherry - tart or bing - I was eating with each bite.
Gluten-Free Tart Cherry Crisp
Filling Ingredients:
3 cups of fresh or frozen tart cherries, pitted
3 cups of fresh or frozen bing cherries, pitted
1/4 cup white sugar (or monk fruit sweetener)
1/2 tsp of lemon juice
Zest from one lemon
Topping Ingredients:
1/2 cup all purpose gluten-free flour blend (such as Grandpa's Flour blend)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar (or monk fruit sweetener)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. table salt
5 Tbsp cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3/4 cup certified gluten-free rolled oats (if you're not gluten-free, you can use regular oats)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Grease a 9" square deep baking dish. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine all filling ingredients (cherries, sugar, lemon juice and zest). Transfer filling mixture to baking dish. Set aside.
In your food processor, pulse together flour, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until well combined, about 6 pulses.
Add butter and pulse 15-20 times until mixture is crumbly but coarse.
Add oats and pulse 6 more times until mixture clumps together. Do not pulverize the oats.
Add topping over the filling mixture in an even layer.
Place baking dish on a baking sheet and then in your oven. Bake for 40-45 minutes until mixture is slightly browned and the cherries are bubbly.
Serve warm.
Note: You can substitute regular flour for gluten-free flour and regular oats for gluten-free oats if you don't follow a gluten-free diet. This recipe is hard to mess up and if you do, it's very forgiving because it's a crisp vs. pie.
For more gluten-free recipes, please visit me at www.GoodForYouGlutenFree.com or find me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram.
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