After realizing she hadn’t bought enough rhubarb at the farmers market for her Rhubarb Crisp, our test cook hastily added an apple and then cherries to the filling — with happy results.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Here is a view of the rhubarb/apple/cherry filling in the baking dish, halfway covered with the topping, before it goes into the oven.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
“Did you start cooking yesterday?” our friend and neighbor Roger asked on Independence Day, as our 4th of July cookout came to a close.
“No,” I told him. Neither Mark nor I had started that far in advance.
“Maybe people who are night owls stay up after midnight for food prep,” I mused. “But I work better in the morning, when I’m not tired. So I was up at 6 a.m. slicing rhubarb for my rhubarb crisp.”
Originally, I’d intended to make a crisp filled simply with rhubarb from the Wilkes-Barre Farmers Market (plus sugar, corn starch and lemon juice, of course). But when I had sliced all the rhubarb stalks and put them in a baking dish, it seemed like they were about to be overwhelmed by the oatmeal/flour/sugar topping.
Oh, dear, I should have bought two bunches of rhubarb.
Now I needed more filling … and rhubarb can be a rare ingredient to find, perhaps more so at 6 a.m. on a holiday than at other times.
What to use? What to use?
Rummaging through a crisper drawer in the refrigerator, I found a McIntosh apple, cut it up and added it to the rhubarb. OK, that was better.
But I still needed more filling.
Wait a minute! I had cherries in the fridge! Let the pitting begin!
OK, now that I had three different kinds of fruit (rhubarb is classified as a fruit even though it’s botanically a vegetable) in the filling, I finally felt ready to top it and slide it into the oven.
Then I was ready to move on to my next dish — a pasta and veggie salad that could well be the topic of a future column.
A few hours later, some of our guests gravitated toward the cheeseburgers and shrimp Mark grilled. And some meat-free folks gravitated toward Mark’s savory mushrooms, my hummus, the pasta salad and a spinach salad.
But all nine of us around the picnic table enjoyed the crisp.
“You’re getting rave reviews,” one visitor from out of town pointed out. “Especially for the cherries.”
“That was an impulsive, last-minute addition,” I said.
“It was a great one,” he said.
If you would like to make a similar crisp, here is the recipe from thekitchn.com. Since I didn’t have enough rhubarb, I ended up filling the deficit with 1 apple and about 2 cups of cherries.
RHUBARB CRISP
For the filling:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 pounds fresh rhubarb, leaves removed and discarded, stalks cut into 1-inch pieces (about 6 cups)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
For the topping:
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for the baking dish
Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, for serving (optional)
Instructions
Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 375°F. Coat an 8 or 9-inch square baking pan (or 2- to 2 1/2-quart baking dish) with some melted butter; set aside.
Make the filling:
Whisk 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 2 tablespoons cornstarch together in a large bowl until lump-free. Add 2 pounds of fresh rhubarb pieces and 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice, and toss gently to coat. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.
Make the topping:
Wipe out the bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, if using, and stir until combined. Drizzle 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) melted unsalted butter over the oat mixture and stir until evenly moistened. Scatter the crisp topping evenly over the fruit mixture, leaving large clumps intact.
Bake until the fruit juices are bubbling around the edges of the baking dish and the topping is golden and firm to the touch, 35 to 45 minutes. Let the crisp cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream, if desired
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