This classic summer blackberry crisp is topped with a toasty oatmeal crumble and loaded with brown sugar and cinnamon to tame the tangy berries. Best served with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream!
Last week I had a very special visitor in town. One of my BFF’s from Boston flew all the way across the country to visit! She actually didn’t come just to visit me. She came out West to see some cats.
Cats?
Yep, cats.
See… she owns some famous cats. And knows lots of other famous cats. And there was a cat convention in Los Angeles. Yes, a cat convention. Called CatCon. Is this weird yet?
Anyways, since I am an amazing friend (and… well… ok, I kinda like cats too) I agreed to go to CatCon as long as she came to visit me for a few days first. So these two crazy cat ladies packed up the car and drove down to LA for the weekend. And now my husband might be divorcing me.
Kidding. Kinda.
If you want to see all the cute kitties we met and read a recap of our interesting experience, check out her post about the event here. Go ahead, I give you full permission to judge me right meow. >^..^<
Before we headed south, we spent a few days at my house. Since there’s not a ton to do around here, we spent most of our time eating. But we tried to at least work for our food. One morning, we went berry picking!
Blackberries, blueberries and (our favorite) boysenberries are all in season right now and we picked (and ate!) a ton of them. It was a fun way to spend the morning, and I love supporting local food!
We brought our haul home and decided to make some dessert. The boysenberries were too rare a find to cook and muddle up with other flavors, so we decided to use the huge, plump blackberries. Per Nick’s request, we settled on an oatmeal crisp.
We had to Google the difference between crisps, crumbles and cobblers to determine which one it was that he remembered from his childhood! We loaded it up with brown sugar and cinnamon to tame the tangy berries.
The result was delicious and my house smelled amazing. Berry crisps are such a classic summer dessert, and best eaten outdoors with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
I’m dying to go back to the berry patch again before the season’s over. Local friends, definitely make a stop there!
- 6 cups fresh blackberries
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup flour
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- FOR THE TOPPING:
- 1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
- ½ cup flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) cold butter, cubed
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a pie pan with nonstick spray and set aside.
- In a large bowl, toss together blackberries, sugar, flour and cinnamon. Let sit while you prepare the topping.
- In another bowl, combine the topping ingredients except for the butter, and mix well. Add the butter and use a pastry cutter or 2 knives to cut the butter into the dry mixture until a coarse meal forms. If you need to, you can work it with your fingers but do it very quickly and don't let the butter melt from the heat of your hands.
- Pour the berry mixture into the pie pan, then pour the oatmeal mixture evenly over top.
- Bake 55-60 minutes until the top is golden and berries are bubbling. Serve warm or let cool and serve at room temperature. I suggest topping it with vanilla ice cream!
Enjoy!
Thanks for taking me in for the weekend and enduring my craziness! Most of all, thank you for feeding me from your incredible garden! Eating at Cafe JessFuel is better than In-N-Out anytime! <3
LOL! It better be!! 😉
So fun! Sounds like you had a great time! Love this blackberry crisp. Such a delicious way to use up some of that fresh fruit.
Awww sounds like you had a fun time! I love baking with fruit and this crisp looks so delicious, I can’t get enough blackberries lately 🙂
Crisps are my absolute favorite! I love eating the crumb topping haha! It sounds so delish with blackberries!
Jess, one of my favorite things is a good berry crisp, so as you can imagine, I am loving the looks of this one. I need to make some soon, because you are making me hungry!
Wow thanks for the beautiful reminder that I need to start making fruit based desserts!! This looks so delish!
Oh my gosh, CatCon? That is so fun! Sounds like you had a fun weekend. And love that you got to pick these berries yourself. What a beautiful blackberry crisp. Love that crumb topping!
Thanks, Natalie!! I was totally embarrassed at first that I went, but then I figured I might as well just own it. It was fun! LOL!
Yum! I love a fruity crispy dessert this time of year!
This looks seriously scrumptious! I’m super jealous as I’ve always wanted to go berry picking and I have never found a place to do it. One day my wish will come true! Meanwhile, I’ll just be over here drooling over this gorgeous crisp!
LOL, it’s so fun picking your own food! Makes me feel a little better about stuffing my face… at least I worked for it? HAHA!
I made this recipe for a Sunday dinner and it was so great that I prepared it twice more in the same month! Thanks so much!