If you've never tried rhubarb before, this is the recipe for you. The sweet, crisp topping taking the edge off the tart, tangy fruit, both benefiting from a creamy scoop of vanilla ice cream. This is a great, old-fashioned American dessert. You can substitute all-purpose flour for the whole wheat flour.

Chef John's Rhubarb Crisp

rhubarb

strawberries,

white sugar

lemon juice

lemon zest

brown sugar

whole wheat flour

oats

salt

cinnamon

butter,

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 2-quart baking dish.


Combine rhubarb, strawberries, white sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest together in a bowl.


Stir brown sugar, whole wheat flour, oats, salt, and cinnamon together in a bowl. Cut cold butter into oat mixture with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs and butter pieces are pea-sized.


Pour rhubarb mixture into prepared baking dish. Spread oatmeal mixture evenly over the top.


Bake in the preheated oven until golden and bubbling, about 35 minutes.


My neighbor mentions she has this massive rhubarb plant, and I casually mention that I like rhubarb desserts.  Next thing I know, she has hacked down the entire plant and has brought about 30 lbs of rhubarb to my doorstep.  Needless to say, I started searching for recipes.  I stumbled upon this one, which seemed perfect for the dinner party for 4 we were having.  I made it EXACTLY as the recipe called for, even though I struggled in my mind with "Is one cup of halved strawberries REALLY enough?"  This recipe is flat-out DELICIOUS!  Tangy with the perfect amount of sweetness.  Lemony zesty without lemony overkill.  The four of us completely demolished the 9x9 pan I baked it in.  Thank goodness I still have about 25 lbs of rhubarb left from the neighbor!  I will definitely make this again...as in probably today!

Addendum:  I have found this to be a solid crisp recipe, even if you don't have enough to rhubarb.  I find as long as you use 5-6 cups of various fruits ( rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples, etc) the rest of the recipe remains exactly the same.  And totally delicious!

I followed this recipe exactly, and I was curious because I have made other rhubarb crisp recipes before that add flour to the rhubarb to thicken it. This recipe did not add flour, and the results were awful. It is rhubarb soup with soggy oatmeal on top. We each ate a scoop over ice cream. Adding a few tablespoons of flour to the rhubarb will allow it to thicken, creating more of a "crisp" dessert.

Love this!  Easy to make!  I put a few more strawberries and less rhubarb than it called for.

This is just what I was looking for! The only slight changes I made was orange zest and juice instead of lemon and I cubed instead of diced the rhubarb. This one is going in the archives. Thank you!

I chopped the rhubarb instead of dicing, and subbed blueberries for strawberries. Also cut down just a teeny bit on the white sugar because I try to omit what I can. Perfect outcome- I was so happy with it. My grandmother had always made lovely rhubarb desserts and thus my first time attempting to work with rhubarb had some high expectations. This recipe was a perfect base. I'm sure it's delicious with strawberries, too... and if I use them in the future, I bet the white sugar could go down to about 1/4c. without missing it.

I have made this 3 times this year and it is delicious!
The second time I made it, it was a little runny, so I did add a tablespoon of cornstarch to the rhubarb mixture. I also added 1/2 cup of chopped pecans to the oatmeal topping for extra crunch - topped with vanilla ice cream - YUMMY!
I think I need to plant more rhubarb!

This was so very good.  I always trust Chef John's recipes and have never been disappointed.  As a child we ate a lot of rhubarb as we had a patch in our yard.  I have tried to grow it but with no luck here in Los Angeles area.  So I must buy it in the market and it is a special treat for us.  This recipe was easy to make and so rewarding.  I think next time I will increase the amount of filling using 5 or 6 stalks instead of three.  I used AP flour and it was fine.  I wanted to take a picture, but it was gone before I had a chance to.

My family loves strawberry rhubarb pie, but I am not good at making pie crusts.  So this was a good compromise; they are also fans of oatmeal topping, which make this perfect.

I did add a tablespoon of cornstarch to thicken the liquid; fresh strawberries and rhubarb are too juicy otherwise, even though the flour from the topping does settle down in and help thicken the juices a bit.  

The flavor was very nice, a humble oaty sweet topping with the sweet-tart fruit underneath.  The lemon zest gave a nice zing that set this apart; I bet you could skip the lemon and also cut the sugar a bit, which I might be tempted to do anyway.  This is a simple, tasty dessert and a hit with the family.

Why is it so runny? There is no thickener in the fruit that's why. Needs cornstarch or flour to thicken. I have a delicious crisp topping on a pan of juice. Ice cream topping I guess.

chef john's rhubarb crisp

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total: 50 minutes

Servings: 8

Author : Chef John

Ingredients

Instructions

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