Rhubarb Crisp

I learned to love rhubarb long before I could spell it. My dad grew more plants in the garden than we probably needed, but my mom and grandma happily baked all the stalks into delicious desserts and sauces. Rhubarb crisp with oatmeal was one of my grandma’s favorite rhubarb recipes (and in my memory it’s second only to her pure rhubarb pie).

This rhubarb crisp recipe is still one of the first homemade desserts I make when it’s time to harvest stalks from my rhubarb plants, which I divided from my dad’s in the Pacific Northwest and transplanted to northwest Montana nearly 20 years ago. A crisp takes less work than rolling out pie crust, and it tastes just as delicious. The crunchy topping balances the soft fruit and almost screams for ice cream.

Ingredients for Rhubarb Crisp

• Sugars: Choose dark brown sugar for a bolder molasses taste in the crumble topping, or choose light or golden brown sugar for a hint of smoky caramel flavor. Otherwise, light and dark brown sugar have the same sweetness and texture.
• Cornstarch and flour: In this recipe for rhubarb crisp, cornstarch and flour act as thickeners, one soaking up the fruit juices and the other helping the topping cling together.
• Rhubarb: Look for firm, straight stalks with a shiny surface when harvesting rhubarb or buying it at the store. The cut end will dry out as it sits, so use your fresh rhubarb as soon as possible. Rhubarb that has been sliced, bagged and frozen works just as well in this recipe.
• Apples or strawberries: Counter rhubarb’s tartness with the natural sweetness of apples or strawberries. Because strawberries also ripen in the spring, strawberry-rhubarb recipes are classic at that time of year. Apples make a tasty substitute if you have frozen rhubarb, or if you get a second crop during the fall harvest.
• Oats: Rolled oats add crunch to the top of this rhubarb crisp recipe. They’re often the key difference between crumbles and crisps.
• Butter: Butter turns the topping toasty and crunchy when baked. Without it, the topping will be dry and coated with raw flour, which you don’t want.
• Cinnamon: There are two basic types of cinnamon: Ceylon and cassia. Ceylon cinnamon’s delicate, complex flavor is ideal for ice creams and simple sauces. The spicier, bolder cassia cinnamon (often labeled simply as cinnamon) is preferred for baking.

Directions

Step 1: Prepare the fruit

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, combine the sugar and cornstarch. Add the rhubarb and apples or strawberries, and toss to coat them.

Spoon the mixture into an 8-inch cast-iron or other ovenproof skillet and spread it evenly.

Editor’s Tip: If you don’t have an ovenproof skillet, bake the crisp in an 8×8-inch or similarly sized baking pan that can withstand the oven’s heat. Ceramic or glass won’t react to the natural acidity of rhubarb as steel or aluminum bakeware might.

Step 2: Mix the topping

In a small bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, butter, flour and cinnamon until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the fruit.

Step 3: Bake and serve

Bake the crisp until it’s bubbly and the fruit is tender, about 45 minutes. Serve it warm, with ice cream if desired.

Recipe Variations

• Keep it simple: If you love the tartness of rhubarb, you can make this recipe for rhubarb crisp from 5 cups of sliced stalks without adding any extra sugar.
• Introduce different fruits: The dessert is so simple that you can make a crisp with any fruit. Replace the apples or strawberries with blueberries or raspberries—just make sure to use fresh fruit or thawed and drained frozen fruit.
• Switch to honey: Substituting honey for sugar affects the texture of some baked goods, but not crisps. Mix just 2/3 cup of honey into the fruit for the same sweetness, or cut back to even less depending on your taste. Honey would make the topping too sticky to sprinkle, so stick with brown sugar there.
• Add nuts: To give the topping even more crunch, replace half of the oats with chopped nuts. Walnuts are more affordable than pecans, which have a richer flavor. Hazelnuts should be peeled before they’re chopped.

How to Store Rhubarb Crisp

Let rhubarb crisp with oatmeal cool completely, and then transfer it to a container with an airtight lid, trying to keep the topping on the surface of the dessert. The crisp can be stored at room temperature for two days or in the refrigerator for up to five days. The topping will lose some of its crunchiness the longer it sits. Leftover crisp can be served at room temperature, or it can be returned to the ovenproof skillet and reheated in a low-temperature oven.

Can you freeze rhubarb crisp?

Fruit crisps, especially the top layer, get soggy when frozen, but fresh rhubarb freezes easily, allowing you to make quick crisps all year. To freeze rhubarb, slice it first. Thawed rhubarb works best so the filling doesn’t become too juicy.

Rhubarb Crisp Tips

How do you cut rhubarb for rhubarb crisp?

Cut rhubarb across the stalk so that you break the stringy strands that run up its length. The thinner the rhubarb slices, the more they’ll cook down in a crisp, so cut 1-inch pieces if you like chunks in your crisps and smaller slices if you want a smoother filling.

Why is the rhubarb crisp soggy?

To keep the topping from sinking and becoming soggy, thoroughly coat the flour and oats with butter. If bits still seem dry, mix in another tablespoon of melted butter before you sprinkle the topping on the fruit. The beauty of this rhubarb crisp recipe is the crunchy topping layered over the soft base. For the crunchiest topping, let the crisp toast under the broiler for just a minute or two after it finishes baking, watching carefully so that the sugary surface doesn’t burn.

How do you serve rhubarb crisp?

With vanilla ice cream, of course! Just scoop the crisp from the skillet into individual bowls and pile on the ice cream (crisp with ice cream can get a bit messy when served on plates). Rhubarb crisp with oatmeal is also delicious with a scoop of frozen lemon yogurt or fridge-cold Greek yogurt. This dessert is a delicious follow-up to some of these super-quick spring dinner ideas, which you can make and eat while the crisp is baking.

Watch How to Make Rhubarb Crisp

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