Chocolate Sesame Cherry Crisp

Chocolate Sesame Cherry Crisp

This is the ideal time of year to make crisps. All the berries are in season as well as the stone fruits such as peaches, nectarines, plums, etc. In this recipe I use cherries with a chocolate flavor crumb mixture with toasted sesame seeds. It is surprising what a strong nutty flavor sesame seeds can bring to a dish. I know the idea of getting the seed out the cherry can be bit daunting but I used a method I saw on the internet that made it at least less labor intensive than I thought. Who has a cherry pitter anyway?

How to pit a cherry without a cherry pitter: You will need an empty wine bottle and a single chopstick. Remove the stem from the cherry and place it stem side up on top of the wine bottle. Take the chopstick and ram through the cherry until the seed is pushed out into the bottom of the wine bottle.

Crumb Mixture:

1/3 c all-purpose flour

2 T unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ c white sugar

2 T brown sugar

Pinch of slat

4 T cold butter, cut into small pieces

2 T toasted sesame seeds

Cherry Filling:

4 c cherries, pitted

¼ c white sugar

2 T cornstarch

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Toss the cherries with the sugar and the cornstarch. Pour the cherry mixture into a shallow gratin dish. In a medium size bowl mix the flour, cocoa powder, white sugar, brown sugar and salt. Using a pastry cutter, blend in the cold butter into the flour mixture until the pieces are the size of a small pea. Stir in the sesame seeds and sprinkle the crumb mixture on top of the cherry mixture in the gratin dish. Bake for 45 minutes or until bubbly. Remove from the oven and let it rest for 20 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Serves 6-8