This Chocolate and Cherry Crumble is a decadent summer treat! With a hint of vanilla and lemon and topped with a tender crumble topping, you’ll be making this easy recipe until the very last cherry of the season.
Cherries and almonds may be the classing pairing, but we all know the real OTP for cherries is chocolate (looking at you, black forest cake!). Add to that a cinnamon-spiked, tender streusel topping, and you’ve got my new favourite summer comfort dessert: truly decadent dark Chocolate and Cherry Crumble.
Ice cream is optional; but highly recommended.
Why you’ll Love this Chocolate and Cherry Crumble Recipe
- Decadent crumble. This is an indulgent take on the traditional crumble, filled with rich dark chocolate, sweet and juicy cherries, all crowned with a moreish crumble topping.
- Easy to make. It might not be a quick recipe in terms of prep work – unless you have a cherry pitter or are using frozen cherries – but it is an easy recipe to make.
- Any leftovers make for a truly decadent breakfast the next day.
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What is a Crumble?
A crumble is a traditional British dessert made from stewed fruit and a crumbly, streusel-like topping made from butter, flour, sweetener and spices. The crispy crumble topping is scattered on top of sweetened fruit, and then baked until the fruit juice thickens and bubbles and the crumble is a rich golden brown.
You can also make savoury crumbles with vegetable or meat fillings, and top it with a cheesy instead of sugary crumble.
The most common and popular crumble recipe is an apple crumble, which is perfect for autumn when different kinds of apples are both plentiful and at their best. Though rhubarb crumble is also very popular and one of the original fruit crumble fillings.
One of the earliest mentions of a fruit crumble comes from Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, published in 1861. But it grew in popularity around the time of World War II when a lot of the ingredients used for traditional desserts and pies were scarce and expensive.
What’s the Difference between a Crumble, a Crisp and a Cobbler?
If you want to see an argument break out amongst self-professed foodies and foodie historians, ask them what the difference is between these fruit-forward desserts. You will get many different answers and beliefs, especially if they hail from different parts of the world.
Though the names for crumbles and crisps are fairly interchangeable these days, it’s believed the main difference between the two, back in the day, was the addition of oats to the streusel topping used for crisps.
Because the oats in the topping bake up crispier, get it?
The addition of nuts to the streusel topping is also heavily debated. And a crisp tends to be the American term of preference, while the British, Irish, Australians and New Zealanders all call it a crumble for the most part.
A cobbler though, now that has a recognisably different topping. It still starts with a base of stewed fruit, but it’s topped with scones or Southern flaky biscuits instead of a crumb or oat topping.
And let’s not get started with pandowdies, buckles, grunts and brown Betties!
No matter what you call it, a crumble’s a tasty dessert of fruit and a streusel topping.
Chocolate and Cherry Crumble Recipe Ingredients
The typical rule of thumb for a crumble is to slice up as much fruit as you need to fill your baking dish almost to the top. To fill my 25x25cm baking dish, I used:
- Cherries. Lots and lots of cherries! I used 800g of fresh cherries which I then pitted and halved. You can use frozen cherries for this recipe, but make sure to defrost them completely and drain them well – extra moisture is not your friend when making a crumble. I would not recommend using jarred or candied cherries for this recipe AT ALL.
- Sugar. The amount of sugar you use will depend on the sweetness of your cherries. Mine were ripe and good to go, but unfortunately, not very sweet. Taste your cherries first before adding that extra tablespoon of sugar.
- Corn flour. All crumbles need a little corn flour to help the fruit juices thicken up and make a sauce. Corn flour is preferred over all-purpose flour for this recipe as you need less of it to achieve the same end result.
- Lemon juice. A little lemon juice brightens up pretty much any dish! Here, it’s used in small quantities to enhance the cherry flavour. Don’t get carried away though; while lemon and chocolate play well together, they do so in small quantities!
- Vanilla. Again, just a little for adding depth to the overall flavour, as vanilla enhances both cherry and chocolate flavours.
- Chocolate. I used dark chocolate so that the crumble would be rich but not overpoweringly sweet. If you really don’t like dark chocolate, use half the amount of milk chocolate. And you want the chocolate to melt into the cherry sauce, so chop up some good quality chocolate instead of used choc chips.
For the crumble topping you’ll need:
- Flour. All-purpose flour is fine, unless you want to make a gluten free crumble.
- Brown sugar. Use whatever brown sugar you have on hand, but a light brown sugar works best with the delicate cherry flavours and won’t overpower the chocolate.
- Baking Powder. We’re not looking for a rise here, just enough to make the crumble topping tender so when you bite into it, it complements the fruit filling below rather than overtaking it.
- Cinnamon and salt. Can’t have a crumble topping without cinnamon and salt!
- Butter. The star ingredient that makes a crumble possible! Make sure to use unsalted butter so it doesn’t end up tasting too savoury. I use cold, room temperature butter so the crumble stays in clumps while it bakes and becomes tender, instead of spreading out thinly and gravely like can happen with melted butter.
Find the exact quantities in the recipe card below.
How to Make this Chocolate and Cherry Crumble Recipe
Crumbles are super easy to make. A little patience to slice up the fruit, a few minutes to bring the streusel topping together and the magic happens in the oven!
- Prep the fruit. Make sure to halve the cherries after pitting them – they’ll release more juices that way. Unless you’re using frozen cherries, you’ll have to pit fresh cherries for this recipe. If you don’t have a cherry pitter, you could try using the chopstick hack, which supposedly works by inserting the chopstick through the stem side and pushing the pit out the other side. Sadly, this trick doesn’t work for me, I just end up with smashed cherries. I halve the cherries first and then wiggle the pit out. When all the cherries are pitted and halved, mix them with the sugar, corn flour, lemon juice and vanilla. Scatter the chocolate evenly over the cherry mixture.
- Make the crumble topping. Add all the crumble topping ingredients to a bowl and using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour and sugar mixture until large crumbs and clumps form – a bigger crumb is better for crumbles.
- Layer and bake. Scatter the crumb topping evenly over the chocolate and cherry layer and bake until the fruit is soft, the fruit juices are bubbling up through the cracks and the streusel topping is lovely golden brown.
- Serve. The juices with thicken and set as the crumble cools. Serve warm, drizzle with any juice from the bottom of the baking dish and vanilla ice cream, of course!
Can’t get enough of summer fruit? Try these recipes too:
- Cherry and Brie Crostini
- Cherry Salad with Feta and Almonds
- Baked Apricots with Streusel and Whipped Ricotta
- Berry Cheesecake Star Bread
- Spiced Chocolate Plum Cake
- Peach Fritters with Cointreau and Orange Glaze
Or explore all our desserts here, including a Nectarine and Raspberry Crumble!
Recipe
Chocolate and Cherry Crumble
Ingredients
For the Crumble Topping
- 120 g all-purpose flour
- 80 g light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 100 g butter, cold
For the Chocolate and Cherry Filling
- 800 g cherries, fresh or frozen
- 2-3 tablespoons white sugar, depending on the sweetness of the cherries
- 1 tablespoon corn flour
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste, or essence
- 100 g dark chocolate, finely chopped
Instructions
- To make the crumble topping, combine the flour, light brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir briefly to mix. Add in the cold butter, and using your fingertips, or a pastry cutter, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until large crumbs and clumps form. Set aside in the fridge.120 g all-purpose flour, 80 g light brown sugar, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon salt, 100 g butter
- Preheat the oven to 190°C while you pit and halve the cherries.800 g cherries
- Add the halved cherries to a 25x25cm baking dish and add to it the sugar, corn flour, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix very well, making sure there are no corn flour lumps. Scatter the dark chocolate evenly over the top of the cherries.2-3 tablespoons white sugar, 1 tablespoon corn flour, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon vanilla paste, 100 g dark chocolate
- Scatter the chilled crumble mixture evenly over the chocolate and cherries and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the crumble topping is a deep golden colour and the fruit juices are bubbling up around the edges
- Allow to set and cool for 5 to 10 minutes and then serve, with any fruit juices from the bottom of the baking dish and vanilla ice cream.
