It's a restless but beautiful fall day today, and after fighting the urge all day I finally caved and did what I do best: bake. Specifically, an Apple-Cherry Crumble. Today has just felt like a perfect fall baking day. Oh but I didn't want apple pie, nor did I want just a plain apple crisp or cherry streusel. I wanted something... more. I had yummy apples to be used, and tart cherries from the local orchard in the freezer (a leftover from the 4th of July when I bought 20lbs of tart cherries to can and freeze). The combination has turned out to be a pefect match - that amazing apple flavor that is associated with fall alongside the tart cherries, a fantastic reminder of summer.

It's a combination of recipes, really. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. A pinch of something else. But it's absolutely heaven to eat.

Mixing the crumb topping by hand is a must, in my opinion. Sure, you can throw everything into a food processor and let a machine do it. But there's something fun about getting your hands dirty as you mash the flour and sugar in with the butter. Its like being a child playing with Play-Doh only better.

On with the recipe...

Apple-Cherry Crumble

Filling:

3 large fuji apples, cored, peeled, and sliced
1 cup tart frozen cherries, thawed
1/8 cup sugar
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp pie spice*
1/4 tsp salt
1/3rd lemon for juice

* There are a ton of recipes out there for making your own pie spice mixture for pies if you don't already have the pre-mixed on hand. I've found it to be a lot cheaper to make up your own (especially since you probably already have some, if not all, ingredients in your cabinet already!), and its a LOT easier to control how much of any particular ingredient is in there.

Topping:

1 cup flour
2/4 cup packed brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 9x9x2 glass baking dish and set aside. Combine all filling ingredients in a large bowl and mix lightly. Pour filling into baking dish and distribute evenly. Combine all ingredients for topping in a separate bowl and work together until the topping becomes crumbly and everything is evenly blended. Pour crumb topping on top of apple/cherry filling and spread it out evenly.  Bake for 20-25 minutes - crust will be golden brown.

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