Since mid-May, we’ve been gathering with friends every Friday evening for a pick-up game of soccer. All ages, all skills, and ALL fun. Last night, on the summer solstice, the weather was PERFECT. Sunny, but a cool 70-something Fahrenheit. I LOVE these days. Like, if I could live someplace where this was the exact weather everyday for 9 months of the year—as long as I also got a month of fall and a couple of months of winter—I’d totally live there.
This perfect weather brings with it one of my favorite fruits (well, technically it’s a vegetable, but who needs to be technical here?): rhubarb. I’ve made jam with it (on its own or mixed with strawberries or blueberries), and, of course, I make my grandmother’s Rhubarb Cake every year. I’ll also toss it into applesauce to tarten (that’s totally a real word) up the sauce, give it a little zip. I’ll harvest all I can, wash it, cut it up and freeze it, so I always have some on hand.
I think it’s safe to say I LOVE rhubarb.
And it was with that love that I went searching for more rhubarb recipes. I found a handful that I decided had to be made, the first of which was this rhubarb crisp.
I have a fabulous apple crisp recipe that my sister-in-law Katrina gave me decades ago (though, seriously Trina, we can’t be that old), and I LOVE it. So the thought of making a rhubarb crisp got me all aflutter.
Weighing the options of whether to do rhubarb on it’s own or mixed with another fruit, I decided to go with a recipe that used apples or strawberries. I had some old apples on hand just waiting to be turned into pie or apple sauce, but using some of them in this recipe was the absolute RIGHT choice. (I mean, my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it and I’m fighting off the impulse to make it again today—a fight I’m kinda hoping to lose, honestly.) (And, oh gosh, holy baking inspiration, Batman—you could use BLUEBERRIES in this. Gah!! That’s it. I’m done. Fight = lost. Making it with blueberries this very afternoon, my friends.)
I doubled the original recipe because it makes only an 8″ square pan’s worth, and that’s just not enough for my family of six. (Heck, that’s not enough even if it were just me and Steve. It’s THAT good.) But after cutting up the rhubarb and apples, and combining them in a very large 4-quart bowl with the other filling ingredients, I was worried it wasn’t going to all fit into a 13 x 9 pan. (But fit, it did. Just barely.)
SUCH a simple recipe—one that can easily be made dairy free/vegan or gluten free with a couple of simple substitutions. And, holy wow, these few ingredients turn into an incredible flavor extravaganza of sweet, buttery, crunchy topping on scrumptious sweet-tart filling…which is basically the epitome of perfection in a baked fruit dessert, if you ask me.
Ingredients
Filling
- 6 cups sliced fresh rhubarb or frozen rhubarb, thawed*
- 5 apples, peeled and sliced ( or 4 cups blueberries or sliced strawberries)
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 6 Tablespoons cornstarch
Topping
- 2 cups oats (quick or old-fashioned)
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup melted butter (substitute vegan butter for dairy-free/vegan option)
- 2/3 cup all purpose flour (use 1-to-1 GF flour for gluten free option)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F/177 C.
- Prepare fruit and place in a large bowl. Whisk sugar and cornstarch until well combined, then add to fruit. Toss until fruit is coated and dry ingredients are no longer visible. Spoon into a 13 x 9 pan and set aside.
- Mix together all of the topping ingredients until well combined and crumbly. Sprinkle evenly on top of fruit.
- Bake at 350 F/177 C for 45 minutes, until crisp is bubbly around the edges. Let cool. Serve warm (with whipped cream or ice cream, if you like) or completely cooled. Stores well covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
Notes