Serve this warm with some sour cream, whipped cream or a big fat scoop of ice cream. You can also serve it plain, but I don't know why you would.
This dessert does not cut into clean slices. It's more of a scoop-out cobbler-type deal. It's not runny, but feel free to serve it in bowls if you want.
I added some graham cracker crumbs and some cream cheese to my "cake mix" because I do love a cherry cheesecake in graham cracker crust.
8oz1 cup lemonade or water (If using water, add the zest of a lemon)
3.5ozabout 1/2 cup granulated sugar
¼teaspoonkosher salt
1teaspoonvanilla extract
All the slurry
Optional for the Filling
An extra 1/2 pound washed and pitted sweet or tart cherries or a can of tart cherries, very well drained and patted dry (that's what I used because they didn't have any more cherries at the store I went to)
For the Crumble Topping
4oz1 stick unsalted butter
½teaspoonvanilla
6ozscant 1 1/2 cups cake flour
5double graham crackers, finely crushed
2ozscant 1/3 cup granulated sugar
¼teaspoonfine sea salt
Instructions
Spray an 11"x7" baking dish with pan spray. Set aside.
Preheat over to 350F.
For the Slurry
Whisk together the water and corn starch until there are no lumps.
Set aside so it is convenient to the stove.
For the Cherry Filling
Combine the cherries, lemonade or water + zest, sugar and salt in a medium sauce pan.
Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer. Let the fruit simmer about 10 minutes.
Re-whisk the slurry and then pour it all into the cherries.
The mixture will thicken fairly dramatically pretty quickly.
Let boil, stirring, for several seconds, until you can no longer taste the raw starch and the mixture is mostly clear. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
Pour the cherry mixture into the prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
Spread the additional cherries over the top. This step is optional. Your Yum Yum will still be Yummy if you leave out the additional fruit.
For the Crumble Layer
Melt the butter over low heat, and stir until smooth.
Stir the vanilla into the melted butter. Set aside.
In the bowl of your food processor (or just in a gallon zip-top bag which is what I did), combine the cake flour. crushed graham crackers, sugar, and salt. Pulse a few times (or shake the bag well) to combine.
Drizzle in the melted butter/vanilla and pulse (or smoosh the closed bag around) until you have a crumbly mixture.
Sprinkle the crumble layer over the fruit. It will be a pretty thick layer. That's how we like it.
Bake at 350F for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 325F and bake another 15-20 minutes more until the fruit is bubbling around the edges of the pan and the crumble layer is golden brown.
Cool to warm or room temperature and serve.
Smile and enjoy.
Notes
If you want your crumble topping to be a bit less crumbly, you can add an additional ounce of butter. I like it crumbly, so 4 oz of butter is fine for me. Feel free to go with up to 6 oz of butter if you like things less crumbly, though.Serve with some lightly sweetened whipped cream, whipped cream/sour cream or vanilla ice cream.