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    Home » Cobblers & crisps

    Published on: June 2, 2021 by Janice; Updated on: February 23, 2022 3 Comments

    Rhubarb crumble

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    Warm rhubarb crisp in pink bowls served with vanilla ice cream.

    This rhubarb crumble recipe is easy, yielding a tart rhubarb filling that is perfectly set, topped with an oat-free crumble topping. This easy recipe calls for a very short list of ingredients. If you've got rhubarb, then you probably have everything else in your pantry to make this easy rhubarb dessert!

    Warm rhubarb crisp in pink bowls served with vanilla ice cream.
    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Crisp versus crumble

    The naming of desserts with fruit is confusing: there are crisps, crumbles, cobblers, grunts, and the list goes on.

    Though a crisp meant a base of fruit topped with a crumbly oat topping, whereas a crumble had no oats, nowadays, the two names are used interchangeably. I'm calling this a rhubarb crumble, but in your household, maybe you'd call it a rhubarb crisp. Either way, it's delicious!

    Ingredients to make a rhubarb crumble from scratch.

    Type of thickener for rhubarb

    Rhubarb has a lot of water, more than you would think when you look at it and cut into it. This means, if you don't add enough thickener to it, the juices will create a soupy filling that is difficult to serve and quite watery.

    You need to incorporate a thickener in rhubarb fillings in order to thicken the juices and gel them so that the filling is jammy and set, not watery and overly loose.

    Chopped rhubarb tossed in sugar and cornstarch to make a rhubarb crisp in an 8x8 ceramic baking dish.Partially baked rhubarb in a white ceramic dish, ready to be topped with crumble and baked to make a rhubarb crumble.

    Flour is an easy choice, but flour creates a filling that is more opaque and white-ish. Flour is also not as potent as other thickeners, so you may have to use a lot more, which will then interfere with the flavour of rhubarb desserts.

    For this reason, I prefer to use cornstarch, tapioca starch, or minute tapioca for desserts with rhubarb. All of these thickeners create a rhubarb filling that is set, clear, and vibrant in colour and taste.

    If you want to bake a fruit crumble without a thickener, try these strawberry rhubarb crumbles. Baked in smaller ramekins, the smaller volume of filling has a better chance of heating up and bubbling, and the strawberries contribute a certain amount of pectin to help gel the fruit layer.

    Some bakers will actually use the crumble topping as a thickener, stirring a portion of it into the filling instead of flour or cornstarch. This is another option you can consider trying!

    Achieving the perfect set

    In a rhubarb crumble of this size, with 2 pounds of fruit in the filling, in order for the thickener to do its job, you need to make sure the fruit filling, from edge to centre, bubbles and boils.

    If you don't ensure the middle of the fruit layer is bubbling, the filling just won't gel without enough heat. Trust me. I tested shorter baking times and the results were mediocre.

    Another important tip: let the crumble or crisp cool down completely for several hours, if not overnight, before serving. This gives enough time for the filling to gel.

    I photographed this rhubarb crumble the day it was baked, about an hour later so it was still warm and a little more fluid, but by the next morning, the filling was completely set.

    A bowl of homemade crumble topping ready to be sprinkled over fresh fruit to make a fruit crumble dessert.

    Making a crumble topping without oats

    Not every crumble topping has to have oats in it and the toppings can vary quite a bit. Many people prefer them without. This cherry crumble is topped with a crumble made with cocoa powder. This grape crisp has oats and peanut butter in the crumble topping. This mango crisp has sliced almonds in the topping.

    I like to use a ratio of butter-to-dry ingredients (flour/oats) where I use roughly 3 times more dry ingredients than butter, so 1-½ cups flour for ½ cup butter.

    Freshly baked rhubarb crumble ready to be served.

    Butter temperature for crumble toppings

    The temperature of the butter has an impact on the texture of the crumble topping:

    • Make a crumble topping with cold butter and keep it cold so that the mixture is finer, more powdery and dry.
    • Make a crumble topping with softened butter (room temperature butter) OR work in the cold butter for longer until it warms up and softens, and you will have a crumble topping with the texture of cookie dough that holds together well and has larger clumps.
    Freshly baked rhubarb crumble ready to be served.

    Baking in two stages

    For fruits that contain a lot of water, like blueberries and rhubarb, I prefer to bake crumbles and crisps in two stages, a trick I learned from Stella Parks.

    1. Bake half the fruit with the sugar and thickener to get the juices flowing and to get the thickener hydrated.
    2. Mix in the rest of the fruit and top with the crumble topping to finish baking.
    Warm rhubarb crisp in an 8x8-inch white ceramic baking dish served on plates with vanilla ice cream.

    With this method, the filling has a mixture of soft jammy fruit with pieces of fruit that hold their shape. It's the best of both worlds.

    Baking in two stages also allows you to give the filling a better chance of cooking properly so that the juices gel. It also gives you a chance to stir the filling a little more, part way through the baking process, so that you know the sugar is dissolved and evenly dispersed, as well as the thickener.

    This is a technique I used for the blueberry rhubarb crisp because otherwise, the filling was too loose and the crumble topping would burn before the filling came to a boil when I tried to bake them together in one step.

    Rhubarb crumble served warm on pink plates with scoops of vanilla ice cream.

    Making rhubarb fillings more pink

    Sometimes, depending on the time of year or the variety of rhubarb, you might notice your rhubarb is quite green. All colours of rhubarb make tart fillings for crumbles and pies, some more than other.

    If you are really looking for a pinker hue for your baked goods, tuck in a few raspberries with the rhubarb (even just a handful will suffice). The raspberries will break down as the filling bakes and stain the rhubarb filling pink. Nobody will know your secret!

    Strawberries also work, but they have more of a presence even when baked, so I prefer raspberries if you are just looking for a pop of colour.

    Three pink bowls of homemade rhubarb crisp served warm with scoops of vanilla ice cream melting on top.
    Freshly baked rhubarb crumble ready to be served.
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    5 from 1 vote

    Rhubarb crumble

    Prevent your screen from going dark
    This easy rhubarb crumble recipe is made from simple ingredients you probably have in your pantry! This rhubarb crisp is baked in stages to ensure the filling sets properly and the crumble topping bakes without burning.
    Course Dessert
    Cuisine American
    Keyword plain rhubarb crumble, rhubarb crisp, rhubarb crumble
    Prep Time 20 minutes
    Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
    Total Time 1 hour 50 minutes
    Servings 8
    Calories 401kcal
    Author Janice

    Equipment

    • 8-inch Pyrex

    Ingredients

    Rhubarb filling

    • 1 kg (8 cups) fresh rhubarb, trimmed and washed thoroughly
    • 250 grams (1¼ cups) granulated sugar
    • 32 grams (¼ cup) cornstarch
    • 30 mL (2 tablespoon) water
    • 5 mL (1 teaspoon) vanilla bean paste, or pure vanilla extract
    • 10 Fresh raspberries, optional (adds pink colour if your rhubarb is very green)

    Crumble topping

    • 185 grams (1½ cups) bleached all-purpose flour
    • 100 grams (½ cup) granulated sugar
    • 1.25 mL (¼ teaspoon) Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
    • 115 grams (½ cup) unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes

    Optional

    • Vanilla bean ice cream, for serving

    Instructions

    Rhubarb filling

    • Preheat the oven to 400 ºF. Place a 20x20x5 cm (8x8x2 inch) ceramic baking dish (like a deep square Pyrex or a ceramic baking dish with at least 2 inch sides) on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Set aside.
    • Slice washed rhubarb into 2.5 cm (1 inch) pieces. Place half the rhubarb in the baking dish. Sprinkle the sugar, cornstarch, and water over top, then toss the ingredients together to evenly coat all the rhubarb. You can use your hands for this.
    • Cover the baking dish with a sheet of aluminum foil then bake the rhubarb for 30 minutes. When you carefully peel back the foil, you will see the rhubarb should be soft and has released a lot of water.
    • Fold in the rest of the rhubarb and the vanilla bean paste (or extract) to make sure the filling is well mixed using a heatproof spatula. You can also add a few raspberries for colour. Set aside.

    Crumble topping

    • Drop the oven temperature to 375 ºF.
    • In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, and salt.
    • Drop the cubes of butter into the bowl and using your hands toss them in the flour mixture to coat them. Work the butter into the flour using your finger tips to form a crumbly mixture.
    • Sprinkle the crumble over the rhubarb filling. Bake the rhubarb crumble, uncovered, until the filling is bubbling and very hot, even in the middle, and the topping is golden. This will take about an hour, if not more.
    • Let cool for at least an hour (if not several hours) so that the juices set. Serve plain or topped with vanilla ice cream.
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    Nutrition

    Calories: 401kcal | Carbohydrates: 71g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 31mg | Sodium: 69mg | Potassium: 393mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 46g | Vitamin A: 488IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 116mg | Iron: 1mg

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    Comments

    1. HappyBaker says

      June 24, 2021 at 6:54 pm

      This looks wonderful! My garden rhubarb is ready to be picked, so thanks for the post! Can you recommend a gluten free topping? Thanks too for the tip on two-stage baking—I am going to give it a try!

      Reply
      • Janice says

        June 27, 2021 at 1:14 pm

        Hi, I'd replace the flour with a cup-for-cup gluten-free blend that you usually bake with!

        Reply
    2. Ina Patience says

      September 29, 2022 at 9:23 am

      I have lots of frozen rhubarb. Could I use it to make this crisp? If so, any different steps? I am presuming it must be defrosted and drained first. It is all weighed out in bags..
      Thank you.

      Reply

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