The best part of this Easy Cherry Crisp, aside from the flavor, is that you can make it with a handful of staple ingredients. Using fresh or frozen cherries, this fruit crisp is a perfect summer dessert that can be made all year long. Serve this homemade fruit dessert with fresh whipped cream or a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Fruit Crisp Using Fresh Cherries (or frozen)
Nothing says summer like a homemade fruit crisp, cobbler or pie made with fresh, in-season fruit, like this cherry version.
Our parents have a couple cherry trees in their yard and Dad recently brought Barbara a big bowl of cherries – already pitted (thanks Mom). She could not find a recipe for a fresh cherry dessert in any of her old cookbooks, so she channeled her inner Grandma.
After asking herself WWGD – What Would Grandma Do – it came to her. Grandma would find a recipe and modify it with what ingredients she had on hand. So Barbara dug through Grandma Kuhn’s recipe box and found a recipe for an apple crisp then modified it for cherries!
Cherry Crisp 8×8
This simple cherry crisp recipe from Grandma is made in an 8 x 8 inch baking dish. Sometimes we use a metal pan, or other times, we use a Pyrex baking dish, 2 1/2 quart size.
Be sure to spray the baking dish with nonstick cooking spray or butter it generously. The cherries and the sugar will act like glue on the pan if you do not grease it first.
Let me give you a hint; double this recipe to a 13 x 9 inch baking dish if you have enough cherries. Everyone loves this old fashioned dessert recipe.
Easy Cherry Crisp Recipe
The great thing about this recipe is, other than the cherries, the rest of the ingredients are ones that most folks always have on hand – flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, egg and butter!
We would definitely classify this recipe as an old-fashioned version of cherry crisp. The fact that it’s a cherry crisp recipe without oats makes it unique too!
Serve this fruit crisp dessert with another one of our Grandma’s recipes – her homemade vanilla ice cream! Honestly, just serve this with ANY kind of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, a dollop of Cool Whip or eat it like Dad does, topped with a little bit of milk!
Old Fashioned Cherry Crisp Ingredients
Cherries, fresh or frozen
Sugar
Flour
Baking Powder
Salt
Egg
Melted Butter
How to Make Classic Cherry Crisp in an 8×8 inch pan:
Full recipe and ingredient amounts for cherry crisp with fresh cherries can be found at the end of this post in the recipe card.
- Mix cherries with 1/4 cup of sugar.
- Pour the cherry mixture into a greased 8×8-inch pan.
- Combine the remaining ingredients – except for butter. The mixture should be crumbly, then sprinkle over cherries.
- Pour melted butter over the mixture.
- Bake at 350 degrees F until top is golden brown and cherry mixture bubbly.
Love cherries? Try our Glazed Cherry Bars or Grandma’s Cherry Fluff!
Notes About Cherry Crisp Without Oats:
- This old fashioned cherry crisp uses fresh or frozen cherries.
- If using frozen cherries, thaw first and drain off the juices.
- The sugar that’s mixed with the cherries may need to be adjusted if the cherries are super tart or super sweet. Add more or less, depending on what your cherries taste like.
- Substitute margarine for butter, if desired.
- Check out our Amazon store for some of our favorite kitchen items.
Our Favorite Fruit Desserts
Looking for more cherry recipes?
Easy Cherry Crisp - An Old Fashioned Cherry Crisp with Fresh or Frozen Cherries
Ingredients
- 5 to 6 cups cherries (fresh or frozen) washed and pitted
- 1 cup flour
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 unbeaten egg
- 1/3 cup butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Mix cherries with 1/4 cup sugar (reserving 1 cup sugar).
- Pour cherries into a greased 8x8 inch pan.
- Combine flour, remaining 1 cup sugar, baking powder, salt and unbeaten egg; mix until blended and crumbly.
- Sprinkle mixture over cherries. Pour melted butter over the top.
- Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.
Notes
- This old fashioned cherry crisp uses fresh or frozen cherries.
- If using frozen cherries, thaw first and drain off the juices.
- The sugar that's mixed with the cherries may need to be adjusted if the cherries are super tart or super sweet. Add more or less, depending on what your cherries taste like.
- Substitute margarine for butter, if desired.
- The great thing about this Easy Cherry Crisp is, other than the cherries, the rest of the ingredients are ones that most folks always have on hand - flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, egg and butter!
- Serve this cherry crisp with another one of our Grandma's recipes - her homemade vanilla ice cream! Honestly, just serve this with ANY kind of vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream or a dollop of Cool Whip!
- Love cherries? Try our Cherry Batter Cake, Glazed Cherry Bars or Grandma's Cherry Fluff!
Linking up to Meal Plan Monday.
Can you use cherry pie filling?
Penny, you sure can! Just leave out the 1/4 cup of sugar that we used to mix with the fresh cherries. Good luck!
Can you use cherry pie filling instead of fresh cherries?
Definitely could use cherry pie filling! Just leave out the 1/4 cup of sugar that we used to mix with the fresh cherries. Good luck…let us know if you try it, Cherie!
I’ve made this same recipe For a while now using cherry pie filling and omitting the 1/4 cup sugar. It is a family favorite!
Awesome! Thanks for the note.
Looks delicious, will try this next week.
Really great recipe….how would you make the apple crisp a la Grandma?
They definitely will! Our mom freezes them each year specifically for this recipe! Good luck.
Had to bake about 45 min
Every oven is a bit different. Hope it turned out even with the longer bake time!
So yummy! Congrats on being featured at Weekend Potluck! I adore simple and delicious recipes like this one.
I made this last night, and everyone raved about how wonderfully good it was. I’ve already been asked to bring it to next months gathering. Warm with vanilla ice cream:)))
Thanks for sharing.
LF
That’s great, Lisa! So glad everyone enjoyed it!
Since we’re leaving on vacation and need to use up the produce, I’m trying it with peaches and blueberries to take to a friend’s house tonight. I’m out of brown sugar, so I’m glad I came across your recipe. Fingers crossed – hopefully it will be delicious!
That sounds delicious! Please let us know how it turned out!
What kind of cherries, Bing or? ?
Judy – We asked our mom what kind of cherry trees they have and she wasn’t sure except that they aren’t Bing cherries. They are more of a small, sour cherry. Sorry, that’s a downfall of using fruit given to us!
Small sour cherries are actually called Pie Cherries. I am picking up 20 pounds today !! Will have to give this recipe a try with some home made vanilla ice cream !!
Thanks for the information. Hope you enjoyed it!
Can you make this in the crockpot?
We haven’t tried it in the crockpot so we can’t give any advice on how to adjust for that method.
How many servings does recipe yield?
It’s in an 8 inch by 8 inch pan so you can get 9 to 12 servings from a pan.
This recipe sounds delicious. Can frozen cherries be used and if so would any alterations be required?
You definitely can use frozen cherries. A couple of tips would be keep cherries frozen until you are ready to use them (don’t defrost) and extend the baking time another 5 minutes as the frozen cherries will bring down the starting temperature of the dish. The final product may have a bit more liquid and when using fresh, so just a heads up! We have some frozen cherries in the freezer but we haven’t pulled them out to make this yet. When we do, we’ll update the recipe!
Using up the canned cherry pie filling I scored for 25 cents a few months ago. Can’t wait for it to come out of the oven on this cold winter’s night.
If substituting cherry pie filling, how many cans should you use?
One 20-21 oz can would probably work or you could do 2 15 oz cans. You won’t need the sugar to mix with it if you use pie filling instead of fresh!
I had.some cherries in the freezer and needed to use them. I found this recipe and it is delicious. I substituted Apriva I. Cherries and half of the topping. Turned out great.
Hi! Have you made this the day before and then reheated??
We’ve reheated individual portions but not the entire pan!