Does your family share our insatiable love of rhubarb topped with crispy oaty goodness? This classic rhubarb crisp recipe is supersized! Bake it up in a 9 x 13 pan and celebrate the best of rhubarb season with a party.
A Short History of Crisps
While some may think of fruit crisps as a traditionally English dessert, they seem to have originated in the United States and Canada in the 19th century. The Pratt Institute School of Home Sciences and Arts published the first crisp recipe in 1924 in Everybody’s Cook Book: A Comprehensive Manual of Home Cookery, edited by Isabel Ely-Lord. Ely-Lord’s version topped apples with a mixture of flour, shortening, water, and sugar.
Antecedents of the crisp, such as the Brown Betty, were first published in the late 19th century. The Brown Betty layers fruit with a sweet breadcrumb topping. Crisps (known as crumbles in England) are said to have become very popular in England during WWII. At the time, rationing limited access to all the best baking ingredients like butter and sugar. However, we could find no such record in Jill Norman’s adorable Eating for Victory (Michael O’Mara Books Ltd., 2007), a compilation of British WWII food pamphlets. We did, nonetheless, find a recipe for a baked apple charlotte. The baked apple charlotte consisted of sliced apples layered with breadcrumbs and sugar rubbed with butter, perhaps the closest thing to a crisp.
More Fruit Treats
Looking for more fruit desserts? Here are a few other ideas
Ode to Rhubarb
Is tangy rhubarb your favorite dessert vegetable, too? Or, do you just have an excess of fresh rhubarb from a giant rhubarb plant growing in your back yard? Either way, you’ll need to make your way over to our other rhubarb desserts.
Useful Tools For Making this Extra Large Rhubarb Crisp
This crisp is really just excuse to buy an adorable ceramic 9 x 13 inch baker. Here are some of our favorites:
Extra Large Rhubarb Crisp
Equipment
- 9 x 13 baking pan
Ingredients
For the fruit filling:
- 4 to 5 pounds rhubarb
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon or orange juice
- 1 tbsp lemon or orange zest
- 1/2 tsp powdered ginger optional
For the crunchy topping:
- 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup pecans or walnuts
- 1/2 cup butter
For the sour cream whipped cream:
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 4 tbsp sour cream to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.
For the fruit filling:
- Trim fresh rhubarb and remove any rough sections. Cut raw rhubarb into 1 inch pieces. If using strawberries, hull and slice straberries into quarters and combine with cut rhubarb pieces.
- In a large bowl, combine rhubarb, strawberries (if using), sugar, orange or lemon juice and zest, and ginger. Spread fruit mixture in prepared baking dish.
- For the crunchy topping:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, rolled oats, and nuts.
- Cut cold butter into 1/2-inch cubes. Use your finger tips to rub the butter into the flour mixture until no more chunks of butter remain, and the mixture begins to clump together. Sprinkle the crumbly topping over the prepared rhubarb mixture.
- Place in preheated oven. Bake 45 to 50 minutes until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is juicy. If the topping begins to brown too much and the fruit is not yet stewy and juicy, cover lightly with aluminum foil and continue baking.
For the sour cream whipped cream:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, whip the whipping cream on low speed until it thickens. Increase speed and beat until soft peaks form. Add in sour cream and whisk to combine.
- Serve warm topped with sour cream whipped cream and/or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This easy rhubarb crisp, served a la mode, just may be our favorite dessert ever.
Notes
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