This rhubarb crisp is the culinary embodiment of sunshine and rainbows. Rhubarb is the unicorn of spring vegetables- a few weeks a year it shows up in the farmers market and in that weird shelf in Fairway where they put so-called “exotic” ingredients like lemongrass and fiddleheads. It also costs about as much as a unicorn, at $6.99/pound. Regardless, it’s a veritable spring rite of passage to bake rhubarb into something delicious and I declare this crisp to be spring’s 2014 answer.
It’s also the time of year when I turn on the oven and within minutes am conveniently able to use my apartment as a sauna as well as a dwelling. This atmosphere is not all that conducive to making pie, since the crust is so sensitive to temperature. So while I’ve always loved strawberry rhubarb pie, this is a much easier way to get your rhubarb fix- and honestly just as delicious.
It’s a bit unusual to see a rhubarb dessert that doesn’t incorporate a fruit like strawberry or apple to sweeten it up. This crisp is all rhubarb, all the way, jazzed up with a little bit of orange juice, zest and ground ginger. Also offsetting the bitterness is the sweet and delicious nutty topping of almonds and vanilla wafer cookies. If you’re a real culinary overachiever, which I generally am when I’m not busy overachieving in a dark cubicle 90 hours a week, you can even make your own wafer cookies.
Perhaps best of all about this crisp is the crumb to filling ratio. The topping is so thick that you can’t even see the filling as you pop this into the oven. This is the true sign of a winning crisp. All you need to do now is get yourself invited to a barbeque, nominate yourself to bring dessert and declare yourself the winner.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. rhubarb, stems trimmed, cut into 1-inch lengths (about 4 cups)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- Pinch of salt
- 8 oz. vanilla wafers
- 2/3 cup raw skin-on almonds
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut up
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- In a large bowl, toss the rhubarb with the sugar, flour, ginger, orange zest and juice, and salt. Transfer to an 8 x 8 inch baking dish (I used an ceramic oval dish that came out to about the same size).
- In a food processor, combine the wafers, almonds and sugar and pulse together until coarse crumbs form. Add the butter and pulse until pea-size pieces of crumb-coated butter remain. Scatter the crumb mixture over the rhubarb.
- Bake for 35 minutes, or until the rhubarb is tender and the topping is browned and crisp. Serve warm.
Notes
https://www.thekitchenchronicles.com/2014/06/08/roasted-rhubarb-crisp/
June 9, 2014 at 9:13 pm
We love Rhubarb and not having to deal with a crust makes this recipe a keeper. Can’t wait to try it.
June 10, 2014 at 8:57 pm
Thank you! WIll try it as soon as school let’s out. Love Rhubarb.
August 6, 2014 at 11:28 pm
Made this and it was delicious! And the extra treat is getting to eat the leftover vanilla wafers!