In an attempt to try and eat better (aka lose weight), I have limited myself to baking only when we have someone coming over for dinner. Thankfully Carlo invited a friend to dinner last weekend, so I was able to take advantage of the fresh rhubarb that I had seen at the grocery store to bake a Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp. I love the combination of the sweet strawberries and the tart rhubarb, and how all the fruit gets stewed together so the flavours meld.
Even though the three of us each had a large serving after dinner and we gave our friend a to go container of crisp, we were still able to eke out 3 more nights of crisp enjoyment! So much for the diet, but it was thoroughly relished each time. This Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp can easily feed 8 people at $1.64 per serving.
Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp
Filling:
2 pounds rhubarb stalks, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 pound strawberries, hulled and quartered
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Crisp:
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
Start off by preheating the oven to 375¬? F. To make the filling, put the rhubarb in a bowl with 3/4 cup of sugar and let it sit for around 15 minutes. Stir it occasionally to make sure all of the pieces of fruit get covered by the sugar. You will notice that the sugar draws out some liquid from the rhubarb, which helps make the fruit less tart.
In another bowl, mix the strawberries with the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and let it stand for around 10 minutes. Stir this mixture occasionally too. Use a slotted spoon and transfer the rhubarb pieces to the strawberries. Be sure to toss out any of the rhubarb liquid at the bottom of the bowl since it doesn’t taste very good.
Add the cornstarch, lemon juice, and vanilla extract to the rhubarb and strawberries. Mix it together well and then put the filling into a large baking dish.
The crisp topping is very easy: Just put all the ingredients in a bowl and use your fingers to mix them together until you make large crumbs. I was a little hesitant about using canola oil in the topping, but you couldn’t taste it in the end and it really helped to crisp up the topping.
Sprinkle the topping evenly over the fruit filling and bake it for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes are up, reduce the oven temperature to 325¬? F and let the crisp bake for a further 30 minutes. Take out the crisp when the fruit filling is bubbling up through the nicely browned topping. Let the crisp cool off for around 10-20 minutes before tucking in and topping off each serving with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
could eat a piece right now!!!