Old Fashioned Black Raspberry Crisp
This easy Old Fashioned Black Raspberry Crisp Recipe is made with fresh berry base topped with an oat crumble. This delicious dessert is a beloved vintage recipe.

My Mother was known for making the best recipes from fresh garden ingredients, especially from the varieties of summer berries we grew.
Some of my best memories were spent picking then helping her in the kitchen; making jams, preserves, crisps, pies, and Blueberry Cake. This is one reason why I love our farmer’s market so much in the early summer.
This Black Raspberry Crisp recipe is made from fresh black raspberries, yet you can substitute them for red raspberries or fresh blackberries. What is the difference? Black Raspberries are sweeter than Blackberries!
You might notice I use both ‘crisp’ and ‘crumble’ terms for this recipe (yet not a black raspberry cobbler recipe (or a simple cobbler or blackberry cobbler), as it doesn’t have a pastry-style topping or flaky pie crust). For that, we have an Easy Blackberry Cobbler Recipe for you to enjoy.
While it is a crisp because of the oats in the topping, some may call it a crumble because of the consistency. So whichever name you call this black raspberry crumble with oats, either means you will be calling for seconds.
This old fashioned crisp recipe is among the best vintage fruit desserts for a reason, it’s a comforting dessert that many Grandma’s and theirs before have made.
Make sure to try our Easy Peach Dump Cake!

Why You’ll Love this Classic Berry Crisp:

Ingredients and Notes
As always, the full ingredients and recipe is on the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
Can I Use Frozen Berries?
If it’s not berry season, you can make classic raspberry crisp with frozen berries from grocery stores. If you do, it will still be a great recipe.
Depending on your oven, you might need to increase the bake time if frozen are used instead of fresh berries.
How to Make Berry Crumble:
- Prepare Oven and Baking Dish: Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 14-inch cast iron or oven safe pan with butter. Then fill the pan with fresh black raspberries.
- Make berry filling: In a small saucepan on the stove – combine water, sugar, cornstarch, and remaining butter. Then cook on medium heat until a syrup forms.
- Pour into the dish: Pour the syrup onto the berries, and stir well but delicately to coat.
- Make the Topping: In a large bowl combine all ingredients to make the oat topping, and stir with a fork. Sprinkle the oat mixture on top of mixture.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes until the topping is golden brown and berries are bubbling around the edges. As the oat crisp name implies, the crunchy topping should be golden brown and slightly crisp.
- Cool. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool until it’s just warm, and not hot. It’s not required but I do recommend – serve with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and/or whipped topping over the crisp topping.

Can I Make Black Raspberry Crisp Ahead of Time?
Yes, simply bake the crisp completely, and cover with aluminum foil. If at serving time, it’s completely cooled, reheat covered in the oven just until warm again. If you refrigerate an unbaked crisp, the topping will get soggy.
Storage
Try serving this Best Black Raspberry Crisp on our No Churn Homemade Blueberry Ice Cream!

Recipe FAQ
Black Raspberries are sweeter than Blackberries, which are more tart.
Yes, leftover black raspberry crisp should be refrigerated. Store in the fridge for 5 days. Enjoy room temperature or warmed up again.
More Dessert Recipes
If you’ve tried this Black Raspberry Crisp Recipe or any other recipe on my blog please let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you. Finally, consider leaving a 🌟 star rating while you’re here. Thanks!

Black Raspberry Crisp
Ingredients
- 6 cups Black Raspberries
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 3 Tablespoons Cornstarch (plus enough cold water to dissolve)
- 3/4 cup boiling Water
- 2 Tablespoon Unsalted Butter (divided)
For the Crumble Topping
- 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
- 1 cup Rolled Oats
- 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1/4 cup Unsalted Butter (melted)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 14-inch cast iron or oven safe pan with 1 tablespoon of butter.Â
- Fill pan with raspberries.
- In a small saucepan combine water, sugar, dissolved cornstarch, and remaining butter.Â
- Cook on medium heat until a syrup forms, about 5 minutes.
- Pour syrup onto black raspberries and stir well to coat the berries.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl combine all ingredients with a fork to make the oat topping.Â
- Sprinkle oat mixture on top of black raspberries.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes.Â
- Serve warm with ice cream, if desired. Enjoy!Â
Notes
- You can substitute the black raspberries for red raspberries or blackberries in this recipe.
- Refrigerate this blackberry crisp covered in an airtight container for up to 4 to 5 days. Enjoy room temperature or warmed up again.
A favorite black raspberry recipe. We hope you love it as much as we do.
It’s a good recipe, and I’ll definitely make it again! I did find the sugar syrup to be too sweet for my tastes. I want to taste a little bit of the raspberries’ natural tartness, so next time I’ll try cutting the sugar to ½ cup.
I used local black raspberries here in. New Castle, Pennsylvania and the flavor was incredible. . The recipe is perfect!! Just the right amount of sugar, cinnamon, oats – I loved it!! – I will make it again and again!!
Could you use unsalted butter? Excited to try this with berries from our farm!
absolutely!
I am not a recipe commenter… but I just had to come back and say THANK YOU! This was a super easy recipe and made use of some of our farm’s black raspberries that are abundant this year… and it was DELICIOUS!
I’m so glad you came back to comment. So happy you loved the recipe. 🙂