I know the picture above is an awesome individual cherry cobbler, but the story that goes along with it is actually about Coq Au Vin and feeling out this blog as I go.
When we sat down to eat (pre cherry crisp), Hubster asked if I needed to shoot the plate before we dug in. I told him I didn’t shoot the recipe in progress because I wanted to try it first. And then he made a good point (but don’t tell him I said so) that if I waited to shoot recipes until we knew we liked them, we’d be eating a lot of duplicate meals. Very true. I watch a lot of food blogs and I’m used to them posting recipes they love. But it’s also good to know when a recipe doesn’t work, right?
Well, the Quick Coq au Vin would have been one of those non-working recipes. There was nothing really wrong with it, but it was pedestrian at best. If I’m going to use wine (the recipe called for a cup, I ended up dumping in 2/3 of a bottle in an attempt to achieve the right flavor) I want to taste it. Instead, it was more of a tomato-y chicken stew.
So pre chicken stew and pre conversation, I worked on making two adorable cherry crisps and I didn’t shoot the progress. Post dinner and post conversation, I decided to snap a picture of the finished dish. And I’m glad I did, because this was like a steaming dish of heaven. This will be one I’ll make again (with little complaint from Hubster) but I didn’t want to wait to share it with you.
I try to make dessert on the weekends when we’re less busy. Summer produce has been calling my name and I saw a Cherry Crisp recipe on MyRecipes.com. It called for 2 lbs of cherries! Whew! That’s a lot of produce to process, and honestly we can’t eat that much crisp (or we shouldn’t… and if it’s at home we I will). I picked up these cute crocks during one of our many trips to area antique malls and figured they’d make the perfect vessel for warm cherry goodness.
After hand pitting a little over a pound of cherries (note to self: Get cherry pitter), I basically halved the rest of the recipe. If you have a fun vintage baking dish you want to use, just start pitting the cherries and toss them into the dish. When you’re happy with the fullness, measure the cherries (just approximate) and cut the original recipe linked below. In lieu of that, pick up some cute individual crocks of your own and use my proportions.
Fresh Cherry Crisp
Adapted from Cooking Light’s Cherry Crisp
3 cups cherries (about 1 1/4 pounds)
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice (a light squeeze of 1/2 lemon)
1/8 tsp almond extract
Dash of salt
Cooking spray
Topping
1/4 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
Dash of salt
3 Tbsp chilled butter
2 Tbsp slivered almonds
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pit cherries and combine with sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, almond extract and salt in a bowl. Spray baking dish(es) with cooking spray and dump in cherry mixture, dividing as appropriate.
In another bowl, combine oats, flour, brown sugar and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture is course and the butter is in small pieces. Stir in almonds and top cherries, dividing as appropriate.
Place smaller baking dishes on a cookie sheet. Bake for 30 minutes or until filling is bubbling and top is crisp. Let stand for at least 5 minutes.
Note:I’m always worried about serving pipping hot individual dishes, but the plating in the picture did the trick. Choose a plate that is wider than the baking dish and can be easily grasped without fear of burning. Top with a pot holder or folded dish towel. Then place the hot dish on top.
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