Grandma's Tart Cherry Crisp

 A friend recently gave me a large bag of ripe tart cherries from her tree.  And the sight of these wonderful delicious treats brought back memories of summers spent on my grandparents farm, and my grandmother's simple but wonderful tart cherry crisp.  The season for tart cherries is very short, so you have to move fast to get your supply, before they are gone for the year.  Luckily I scored enough to make several dishes.  Let me share my Grandma Emma's Tart Cherry Crisp.

You will need:
4 cups of cleaned and pitted tart cherries
2 Tabs sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teas ground cinnamon
1/2 teas nutmeg
1/4 teas salt
1/4 cup cold butter

 Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Place the cherries into a 9 inch pie plate.

Sprinkle with the sugar.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.  Mix together well.

Cut the cold butter into cubes, and cut into the sugar/flour mixture, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, (you are just making a simple crumble topping).

Sprinkle over the topping of the cherries.  Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the top is bubbly.

 Remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes.  There will be very little liquid inside the crisp, (we only used 2 Tablespoons of sugar).

 While it is still warm, (but cool enough to eat), it is ready to serve.  Notice how little liquid is in the bottom of the pan, compared to most crisp.

Yet the cherries have a nice sweet flavor, without being overly sweet.  I like my crisp plain.  My husband likes his with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  This is also very good served cold.  I just store the leftovers in the refrigerator, and serve it cold, or warm it slightly in the microwave.

I hope you can get some fresh tart cherries, so you can taste pure wonderful summer delight.  If you aren't lucky enough to get fresh cherries, you can always use 2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans of drained pitted tart cherries.  But fresh is always so much more tasty.
ENJOY !