Berry Crisp

Loaded with fresh (or frozen!) berries of your choosing, this berry crisp recipe is incredibly simple and always a hit! My recipe takes just 15 minutes to prepare and can be made several days in advance. Recipe includes a how-to video!

Why You’ll Love This Berry Crisp Recipe

• Versatile and customizable. Use whatever berries you like, have on hand, or are in season (though you can always use frozen berries and enjoy it any time of year).
• Beautifully balanced flavor and texture with a juicy (but not too runny and certainly not too pasty) fruit filling and a perfectly crisp, perfectly sweetened topping. 
• Just 15 minutes to prep! And it’s so easy too. There’s no pre-cooking the filling or chilling the topping; simply stir together the berries, make the streusel, and bake!
• Can be made several days in advance or frozen. It’s perfect for summer cookouts and picnics!

This berry crisp recipe is the summer version of everyone’s favorite fall dessert (apple crisp!). It’s packed with sweet, juicy berries and topped with a crisp, classic streusel topping. Personally, I love serving mine with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or even whipped cream, but it’s flavorful and satisfying enough to be enjoyed on its own, too.

Ingredients

This recipe uses fresh or frozen berries and just a few pantry staples. Here’s what you need!

• Berries. I found that an even(ish) blend of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries works really well for berry crisp. If you don’t like a particular berry, feel free to leave it out, but know that it may alter the flavor. A crisp made with just blueberries and strawberries will be quite sweet, while raspberries tend to be more tart and can balance the sweetness. While they’re obviously not berries, you could also add in some peach slices, if you’d like!
• Lemon juice. A splash of fresh lemon juice helps enhances the flavors of the berries nicely, similar to how I make my blueberry pie filling.
• Granulated sugar. I stayed away from brown sugar for today’s recipe because the molasses detracted from the fresh berry flavor. Granulated sugar also yields the best, most crisp topping.
• Baking soda. While it comes together quickly and easily, the crisp topping for this recipe was actually a bit tricky to perfect, as it kept ending up too soft or too tough. Adding a bit of baking soda works well here for making the topping perfectly crisp so that it crumbles beneath your fork. It actually works here similarly to how it does in my peanut brittle; by making the mixture more porous it ultimately gives it a more pleasant texture that works well with the berries.
• Rolled oats. Quick oats can work instead of rolled, but you get a different texture that I don’t care for as much (same thing goes when you’re making my oatmeal cookies). I’d certainly use them if it’s all I had though.
• Unsalted butter. Make sure the butter is very cold and cut into small pieces to keep the crisp topping from being soggy. If you only have salted butter on hand, you can use that and skip the additional salt in the topping.

SAM’S TIP: If you want a little spice, feel free to add a pinch of cinnamon to the crisp topping. Personally, cinnamon has a more wintery/spice cake appeal to me; I prefer to keep things more summer-y and use neither cinnamon nor vanilla so the berry flavor can really shine!

Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Berry Crisp

1. Stir together the berries, lemon juice, sugar, and salt.
2. Fold in the flour until evenly coated, then set the berries aside.
3. Make the topping by whisking together the flour, oats, sugar, baking soda, and salt until combined, then cut in the butter.
4. Use a pastry cutter to work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. This will be a quite dry streusel; this is by design.

5. Stir the berries one more time, then pour them into a lightly buttered baking dish. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly overtop. It will seem like a lot, but once everything bakes up the balance is actually perfect.
6. Bake until bubbly and the crisp is light golden brown in color. Let the berry crisp cool for at least 10-15 minutes before serving, it’s quite hot right out of the oven!

SAM’S TIP: If you’d like larger crumbs for your crisp topping, you can use your hands to pinch together larger clumps. Just make sure you don’t handle the streusel so much that you start to melt the butter, as this can lead to a softer topping.

Frequently Asked Questions

Enjoy!

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Berry Crisp

Loaded with fresh (or frozen!) berries of your choosing, this berry crisp is incredibly simple and always a hit! My recipe takes just 15 minutes to prepare and can be made several days in advance.

Recipe includes a how-to video!

5 from 5 votes

Print Pin Rate

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

Servings: 8 servings

Calories: 319kcal

Author: Sam Merritt

Ingredients

Berry Layer

• ▢ 7 cups (1040 g) fresh or frozen mixed berries see note
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• ▢ ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
• ▢ Pinch of table salt
• ▢ 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

Crisp topping

• ▢ ¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons (109 g) all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 cup (95 g) old fashioned oats
• ▢ ⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon table salt
• ▢ ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter cold

Recommended Equipment

• ▢
  9” square glass or ceramic baking dish
• ▢
  Mixing bowls

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and lightly grease a 9×9” (23 x 23cm) square baking dish with butter. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine berries, lemon juice, sugar, and salt and stir well.
  7 cups (1040 g) fresh or frozen mixed berries, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, Pinch of table salt, ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
• Sprinkle flour over the berries and use a spatula to gently stir to coat the entire mixture. Set aside and prepare the crisp topping.
  3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

Crisp topping

• In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, oats, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
  ¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons (109 g) all-purpose flour, 1 cup (95 g) old fashioned oats, ⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon table salt
• Use a pastry cutter to cut in the cold butter until the butter is well distributed through the mixture. This mixture will be very dry, once butter is in small pieces and mostly incorporated you can use your hands to pinch the dough together and create larger clumps if desired (be brief with your hands so you don’t warm the butter too much). When done the mixture should resemble coarse crumbs.
  ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter

Assemble and bake

• Use a spatula to give the berry mixture a brief stir then pour evenly into prepared baking dish.
• Sprinkle streusel mixture evenly over the berry layer.
• Transfer to 375F (190C) preheated oven and bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until topping is lightly golden brown and mixture is bubbly.
• Allow to cool for at least 10-15 minutes in the pan. Serve warm, topped with vanilla ice cream if desired.

Notes

Berries

I like to use an equal(ish) mix of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and quartered strawberries. Sliced peaches would also work well here if you’d like to toss a few of those in the mix as well. I personally don’t thaw my berries if they are frozen, but you can if you prefer.

Making in advance

Can be prepared up to 2 days in advance of assembling and serving. Place the berries in the baking dish, cover tightly, and refrigerate. Store the crisp topping separately in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Sprinkle the topping over the berry layer just before baking.

Storing

Once cooled, cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You may also tightly seal and freeze for up to 3 months (thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating/enjoying).

To reheat you may either microwave or cover with foil and heat in a 350F (175C) oven until warmed through (about 15-25 minutes – remove foil for the last 5 minutes for a crispier topping).

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 319kcal | Carbohydrates: 49g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 145mg | Potassium: 131mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 26g | Vitamin A: 417IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 22mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.

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