The Sweet Side of the Sour Cherry

Fresh, sour cherries are a thing of beauty.  They are also a bit of a rarity.  The "season" as it were is so fleeting that when you happen upon them at the farmer's market, you have no choice but to buy them because they won't be there the very next week.

If you are practicing restraint and not planning to make preserves, you content yourself with one quart.  This is just enough cherries to make a pie, or better yet, a crumble.

You will need to use or freeze your cherries within a few days.  Either way, you will need to pit them.  Alternately, you may have a girlfriend who will pit them while you are at work.  Having the latter, it is the method I recommend.

Pre-bake.

Post-bake.

With requisite vanilla bean ice cream.

I cobbled (get it?  cobbled?)  a few recipes together and came up with this:

Sour Cherry Crumble

For Cherries:
4 cups pitted sour cherries
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
pinch salt

For Topping:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup sliced almonds

•  Combine all ingredients for cherries and pour into a shallow 2 or 3-quart baking dish.
•  Slice 1 tablespoon of butter onto top of cherries.
• Combine remaining butter, brown sugar, and flour and mix until butter is the size of small peas.  Add oats and almonds and mix to combine.
• Sprinkle topping over cherries and bake at 325 degrees for one hour and fifteen minutes or until top is golden and cherries are bubbly.

Literate Baker notes:  It was still vexingly hot when I made this, so I baked it in my toaster oven.  Not quite as evenly baked as a regular oven, but passable.

Literate Baker confessions:  This, like the blueberry cake, was good for breakfast.

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