It's just how the rhubarb crumbles

Some days you are just in the mood for some something sweet.  At least for us, when the weather is this hot then chocolate loses its magical appeal.  What to do? What to do?  With all those delicious summer fruits around it's such a good idea to use them in a dessert dish.

It's so simple to make

Well here's an easy recipe that always does the trick for us.  If you can safely use a knife and can turn on the oven then you are our type of kitchen buddy.  Think way back to those Home Ec cooking lessons that you took in junior high-school.  There's a good chance that fruit crumbles were on the menu.  If you could do it then...

We usually have most of the ingredients already around the house, but for some you might have to hit the local grocery store.  The beautiful thing is that you can replace the fruits that we chose with things that you already have at home.  However, in our humble opinion the rhubarb and ginger work beautifully together.

Recipe:

350 F/ 175 C. Prep time 20 min; Cook time 40 min.
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup white flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup regular oats (not quick oats)
• 1 cup brown sugar (1/2 cup in topping, 1/2 cup with fruit)
• 10 pieces of candied ginger (in syrup if you can find it)
• 5 stalks rhubarb, sliced into 1 inch pieces
• 3 sweet apples or pears (whatever you have on hand), peeled and diced into pieces
• Handful of summer fruits - strawberries, raspberries etc. (optional)
• Juice and zest of one citrus fruit (orange or lemon)

Fruit crumble is a classic tongue pleaser and even better because it is so easy to make.  This recipe is very flexible, but plays off the tart rhubarb, sweet apples and the spicy ginger.

Method:.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

1. Prepare the rhubarb and fruit: add the rhubarb, apples, citrus juice, zest and desired berries into a large pot and cook on medium heat for approximately 5 to 10 minutes.  Keep an eye on it and stir occasionally. While waiting for the fruit to soften, start preparing the topping.

2. Cut together the butter and white flour with a couple of butter knives until the texture resembles breadcrumbs.  Chop the candied ginger into small pieces.  Try not to eat all the candied ginger.  Add the ginger, cinnamon, oats and 1/2 cup of the brown sugar to the butter/flour mixture, stir until combined.

3. Layer the fruit mixture into a 2 1/2" deep pan (eg. 10" pie plate or casserole dish) and cover with the oat topping. 

4. Bake for 40 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling at the edges and the crumble is brown on top.

Try serving with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or vanilla yogurt.


Bon Appétit!