Crisps, cobblers, and crumbles are always a great way to use seasonal fruit. This cherry apple crisp is one of the best recipes you can make with apples. You only need seven ingredients in total and it’s super simple to prepare.
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Along with crisp green apples (I love the tartness of Granny Smiths!) and cherry pie filling, you just need to combine some simple ingredients for the topping and put the whole cherry apple crisp in the oven.
Apples are in season in the fall, but of course, you can find them at the grocery store year-round, which is great because you can make this delicious sweet and fruit dessert whenever the craving hits!
This is a wonderful dessert that smells amazing while it’s baking. You can enjoy it hot, warm, or chilled with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or both. It makes a wonderful mid-afternoon treat or you can serve it for dessert after any kind of main course.
Make sure you check out my chocolate cherry fudge recipe if you love cherry desserts or this Bisquick apple cobbler if you'd rather stick with something closer to a crisp with apples.
Main Ingredients
This tasty cherry apple crisp recipe relies on just seven ingredients, most of which you’ll already have. Perhaps your mother or grandmother used to make apple crisp or something similar. Now you can recreate this wonderful dish. These are the main ingredients you will need:
- Apples: Use tart green apples for the best result. I love Granny Smiths, both as a standalone snack and also in dessert recipes like this one. Other possibilities include Jonagold, Braeburn, Golden Delicious, or Honeycrisp apples. You might want to combine more than one type.
- Cherry pie filling: The sweetness contrasts beautifully with the tart green apples. I always have a can or two of this in the pantry.
- Oats: These are the main ingredient in the topping. If you can’t find quick oats, use rolled oats or old-fashioned oats instead since they are similar. Quick oats are cut thinly and steamed for longer so they cook faster, hence the name. Don’t use steel-cut oats unless you want a chewy topping.
- Brown sugar: To add the perfect amount of sweetness to the recipe. Substitute white sugar if you want to.
- Cinnamon: To complement the apple flavor. Everyone knows cinnamon and apple pair beautifully! Nutmeg would also be good if you prefer the flavor.
- Butter: Although you can substitute margarine, I prefer to use real butter because the finished crisp has a much richer flavor. Use unsalted butter in this recipe.
Instructions Overview
You never need to buy a frozen dessert from the grocery store when it’s so quick and easy to make your own! Plus few desserts beat this homemade cherry apple crisp recipe. It’s such a great comfort food-style dessert.
Pour the cherry pie filling into a baking dish and peel, core, and chop your apples. You can then combine the two. Now mix together the flour, oats, sugar, and flour for the topping.
Melt the butter and then mix that in too. Spread this topping over the fruit and bake the crisp in the oven until it’s golden brown. That’s it - such an easy recipe, right?
Common Questions
There's not much point in making an un-crispy crisp! So, you might be wondering why it didn't crisp up properly. Reasons for this include using too much or too little butter and/or flour or using white instead of brown demerara sugar which gives a crispier finish.
Perhaps the topping layer is too thick, or you didn't combine the topping ingredients properly. Give it a minute or two under the broiler and it should crisp up some more.
If you're considering using fresh cherries in this recipe rather than cherry pie filling, you might be wondering what kind to choose. Would sour cherries work, for example?
Actually, sour cherry varieties like Balaton, Morello or Montmorency can absolutely be used in this recipe but you'll need to add extra sugar to balance out the flavor unless you want a sweet-sour result. It's not always possible to find fresh sour cherries so you might instead prefer to use fresh sweet cherries, such as Bing.
You can mix some flour or cornstarch into the cherry apple crisp filling mixture if you prefer a thicker texture. Using canned cherry pie filling means you shouldn't need to do this, since the juice is quite thick anyway and will also thicken up during baking. One reason I love this particular recipe is I never encounter this issue when using canned pie filling instead of only fresh fruit.
Let it cool completely then cover it with a paper towel. Wrap it in plastic wrap. It will keep for 2 days like this at room temperature or 5 days in the refrigerator.
Yes, you can, since it keeps for several days. You can even double the recipe and freeze one for a future treat!
Freeze it either baked or unbaked. Wrap it in foil and then plastic and eat it within 3 months. Unbaked pie will take 1 hour in a 350°F oven if frozen or 45 minutes if thawed. Baked pie will take 40 minutes in a 350°F oven if still frozen or 15 to 20 minutes if thawed.
I love vanilla ice cream with mine, but whipped cream is also heavenly.
You can reheat individual portions in the microwave for 30 to 60 seconds. If you’re reheating a larger amount, give it 15 to 20 minutes in the oven at 350°F.
Chopnotch Tips
- Not a fan of cherries? You can sub strawberry pie filling instead.
- The topping sometimes gets soggy after reheating. If this happens you can broil it for a couple of minutes to crisp it back up.
- Use tart green apples in this recipe. Sweet red apples become dry and mealy when cooked.
You are going to love how easy this dessert is to make and of course how delicious it tastes. Cherry apple crisp is hard to beat as a beloved homemade recipe!
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Recipe
How to Make
Cherry Apple Crisp
Ingredients
For the fruit filling:
- 3 apples, preferably 1.5lb Granny Smith apples
- 30 ounces cherry pie filling
For the topping:
- ½ cup quick oats, or old-fashioned oats
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup unsalted butter, or margarine
Instructions
To make the fruit filling:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and pour the cherry pie filling into a square baking pan. Set it aside.
- Peel, core, and slice both apples, and then cut the slices into quarters.
- Now mix the apples into the pie filling and set aside.
To make the topping:
- Mix flour, brown sugar, oats, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Place butter in the microwave for 1 minute or until melted. Then add the melted butter into the flour mixture and mix well.
- Spread the topping over the fruit filling evenly and then bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown.
- Serve warm with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!
Notes
- Not a fan of cherries? You can sub strawberry pie filling instead.
- The topping sometimes gets soggy after reheating. If this happens you can broil it for a couple of minutes to crisp it back up.
- Use tart green apples in this recipe. Sweet red apples become dry and mealy when cooked.
