What could be better? Sun ripened fruit, crumbly, buttery crisp, cool melting vanillaness….ahh summer desserts. What you need is, well, almost nothing to make this luscious dessert. There are really only three ingredients. The fruit, the crisp and the ice cream. But before I get down to the nitty gritty how tos, I want to tell you why crisp is so the way to go for finishing a super summer meal.

I was driving in the car with my now teenage son Jacob. He looms above me by a good five inches, which is no fair. Also he prides himself on “taking me down”when we are WWFing on the sectional. I have to hold him down right away, or the sheer mass of him sends me tumbling, not the power position I am known for. Anyway, Jacob has never been a “dessert” kind of kid. He was the kind of kid who would have a bucket of Halloween candy still lying around at, say, Easter time. It’s true. He just does not go for frosting like the normal children. His tastes are more refined. For his birthday, instead of a sugary, white frosted tower of round layered cakes, Jacob would request a single layer of dark brown square cake. From a box. You need no skills except the ability to be humble. You pour the contents of the package inside the orange box into a square glass Pyrex (without greasing it first!), add a cup of water, stir with a fork and insert into the oven. Thirty minutes later you have a small brown cake, which when doused with a good layer of barely sweetened cream, is heaven on a plate. The name of this simple treat is Dromedary Gingerbread Mix. Seriously. Go get some.

So. Back to the car. I asked Jacob recently what he’d like for dessert for a dinner we were planning to celebrate the end of the school year. “Apple crisp,” he said. Well! I. Was. Shocked. No gingerbread??? I asked him what the deal was with the change of heart. “Simple” he said, airily. “You take perfect tasting fruit, cut it up, add some brown sugar, oats and flour, a hint of cinnamon. And voila. The yummiest dessert.” He went on to say how the tart fruit, with the crunchy brown sugary topping, with a cool scoop of ice cream did indeed represent his favorite to date. And who does not love that?

I thought since it’s not really fall we should focus on a fleeting summer fruit, the tart cherry. My own mother made me afraid of cherries at an early age, so I was always leery when ordering anything containing cherries as a child. She told me how horrible she thought those chocolates filled with liquid sugar and cherries were, she told me “real cherries” were not the Red Dye #2 kind that came in a Shirley Temple. That was never what I ordered either. “Shirley Temple, young lady?” a waiter would sweetly ask. “No way!” I would exclaim, horrified at the idea of dyed red orbs floating in my soda. “Gimme a Coke,” I’d say with a sneer. Well not really a sneer. More of a snicker. Okay, I’m actually not sure what face I made, but let me tell you it was disapproving. Also my mother never allowed me to wear cherry Lip Smacker. Ever. Or Chap Stick. She didn’t like the cherry kisses either.

So. When I worked at a natural foods place here in town as a baker, everyone would bring in these crumpled brown paper bags full of whatever they had growing in the yard. A man came in after I had been there a while with a small crumpled bag of small red orbs, only they were not day-glo red. They were more the color of a stop sign, and tasted very tart. I discovered these little guys were divine in a pie, but even better in a crisp. Tart cherries are time consuming to harvest, since they are small and have pits. You have to be committed to get them all pitted (ha!). Also when they are ripe the birds will try to beat you to it.

So. I love tart cherries, and once I made some of this yumminess my mother decided not all cherries were bad apples. Fruit redeemed!!!

Tart Cherry Crisp with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

6 cups tart cherries

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

3 1/2 tablespoons tapioca, tapioca flour or corn starch

2 sticks cold butter, cut into small pieces

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 cups oats

1 1/2-2 cups flour

Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grab a square Pyrex or round deep dish glass pie plate. Grab a bowl. Into the bowl add the cherries, white sugar, extracts, lemon juice, tapioca or whatever you are using for thickening, and 1/2 a teaspoon cinnamon. Stir very, very well, so all of the cherries get coated. Take your time. This step is key to perfectly thickened fruit filling. Pour into the glass baking dish. Rinse the bowl and wipe dry with a paper towel. Add the cut up butter, flour, oats, brown sugarm remaining cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Mix with your hands until crumbly. If you need more flour then add some. If you think this mix is too dry add a little bit more butter. No biggie. When the crumbles are clumping, spread over the top of the cherry mixture. Do not press down. Just let it be. This is what makes the crisp a crisp. Otherwise it will be a cobbler. Not what we are going for.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until the middle is bubbling. You can use a thermometer to read the temperature in the middle of the pan. You should let it get to 180 degrees. The middle has to boil so the fruit thickens. When it is boiling and bubbling, take it out and let stand for a few minutes. Scoop some into a bowl, scoop up some ice cream and have at it!

Serves 6-8 fruit lovers.