Cherry Bakewell Streusel Recipe

Have you heard of Streusel? Streusel is a kind of crumbly topping made with flour, sugar and butter. It can be used on cakes, pies and muffins to give a lovely taste and texture, a bit like the top of a crumble. We have come up with a streusel recipe with an extra delicious twist. This streusel bar uses cherries, almonds and almond essence to create a Cherry Bakewell inspired flavour. They make a great treat and can be eaten as a dessert with ice cream or custard. Or, alternatively, you can also eat them on the go like flapjacks. Take a look at our streusel recipe below.

Cherry Bakewell Streusel Recipe – Ingredients

You will need:

300g black cherries (stoned weight) or canned cherries
Juice and zest of ½ a lemon
300g plain flour
175g Caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
2 tsp almond essence
250g unsalted butter (50g of which should be straight from the fridge, the rest softened)
4 tbsp porridge oats
3 tbsp flaked almonds, chopped further for a crumbled texture
2 tbsp raspberry jam

Cherry Bakewell Streusel Recipe – Method

Method:

Firstly, preheat the oven to 160c fan (180c non-fan, Gas Mark 4) and line a 7 inch square tin with grease proof paper.
Next, half and de-stone the black cherries and toss them in 4 tbsp of lemon juice.
In a mixer or food processor, put the flour, cinnamon, salt and the 175g of caster sugar. Add the softened butter (200g) and almond essence, and mix or pulse until you have a well combined dough.
Spoon ¾ of the dough into the prepared tin and push it down firmly to form a base. Make a few holes with a fork and bake it for 25 mins until a light golden colour.
While that is in the oven, mix the cherries well with the raspberry jam.
Dice the cold butter (50g) and rub it in to the oats, almonds, 3 tbsps of caster sugar, lemon zest and the remaining ¼ of the dough. It will form a slightly sticky dough.
Cut out another sheet of baking paper the size of your tin and, on top of this, make a layer of this second dough ready to top the streusel.
Take the base from the oven, spread the jam and black cherry mixture over it evenly. Next, take the baking paper with the second layer on and turn it over on top of the cherry layer. The dough should then be on to the top and you can peel off the paper, leaving the dough as the top layer of the streusel. Push it in to the corners to cover snugly, then rake the top with a fork to give a rougher texture.
Bake in the oven for a further 30 minutes. Allow to totally cool in the tin before turning out and slicing into bars. Finally, you may like to dust with icing sugar and crumbled almond flakes. Serve as snack bars or as a dessert.