Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Tested & Perfected Recipes

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.

Gorgeous red fruit bubbling away beneath a crunchy oat streusel topping — this strawberry rhubarb crisp is one of the easiest and best desserts I know.

how to make rhubarb crisp

Perfect for a spring or early summer, this strawberry rhubarb crisp is one of the easiest and best desserts I know. It’s wonderful served warm from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. But if you happen to have leftovers, they’re delicious with your morning coffee, too. Heads up: while fruit desserts like this one tend to be flexible, be sure to keep the ratio of rhubarb to strawberries the same. As tempting as it might be to add extra strawberries, doing so can lead to a too-juicy “fruit soup” situation, since strawberries release a ton of juice. For more seasonal fruit crisp variations, see my summer peach crisp and autumn apple crisp.

“I served it to guests at a dinner party and everyone agreed it was the best crisp any one of us had ever tried.”

Heather

What You’ll Need To Make Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Crisp ingredients including corn starch, vanilla, and oats.

If you’ve never cooked with rhubarb, now is the time to start! Technically, it’s a vegetable but you treat it like fruit. It’s very tart but when you add a little sugar and cook it down, it becomes deliciously sweet, like berries. To prepare it for this recipe, trim the leaves (they should not be eaten) and rough ends and wash the stalks, then cut them into 1/2-inch pieces.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Bowl of fruit with sugar and cornstarch.

Quarter the strawberries and combine them with the rhubarb, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla. Stir until the fruit is evenly coated with the sugar mixture, and the sugar mixture is no longer white.

Fruit coated with a sugar mixture.

Transfer the fruit mixture to a 2-quart baking dish (no need to butter it) and set aside while you prepare the topping.

Baking dish full of rhubarbs and strawberries.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar and salt.

Dry ingredients in a food processor.

Process until well combined, about 30 seconds. Add the cold butter.

Butter cut onto dry ingredients in a food processor.

Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, with a few pea-sized clumps of butter within.

Mixture resembling coarse crumbs in a food processor.

Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in the oats and chopped pecans.

Oats, pecans, and processed mixture in a bowl.

Stir to combine.

Spoon mixing oats, nuts, and more in a bowl.

Spoon the topping evenly over the fruit without packing it down.

Fruit mixture topped with crisp topping in a baking dish.

Bake for 45-55 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling around the edges and the topping is golden brown. Cool for 20 minutes before serving, then spoon into shallow bowls and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Baked strawberry rhubarb crisp in a blue dish.

You May Also Like

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Gorgeous red fruit bubbling away beneath a crunchy oat streusel topping — this strawberry rhubarb crisp is one of the easiest and best desserts I know.

Servings: 6-8
Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 50 Minutes
Total Time: 1 Hour 10 Minutes

Ingredients

For the Filling

  • 1 pound rhubarb stalks, trimmed and sliced ½-inch thick (about 4 cups)
  • ½ pound strawberries, hulled and quartered (about 2 cups)
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 1½ tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Topping

  • ¾ cup all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off with a knife
  • ½ cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
  • ¾ cup old fashioned rolled oats
  • ½ cup chopped pecans
  • Lightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

For the Filling

  1. In a large bowl, combine the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla. Stir until the fruit is evenly coated with the sugar mixture, and the sugar mixture is no longer white.
  2. Transfer the fruit mixture to a 2-quart or 8-inch baking dish (no need to butter it) and set aside while you prepare the topping.

For the Topping

  1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar and salt. Process until well combined, about 30 seconds. Add the cold butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, with a few pea-sized clumps of butter within. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in the oats and chopped pecans.
  2. Spoon the topping evenly over the fruit without packing down. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling around the edges and the topping is golden brown. Cool for 20 minutes before serving. Spoon into shallow bowls and serve with vanilla ice cream.
  3. Note: If your baking dish is shallow, place it on top of a foil-lined sheet pan to catch any spills that might bubble over the edges.
  4. Note: Don't be tempted to increase the strawberries in the recipe, or you'll end up with fruit soup (they release a lot of juice).
  5. Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The crisp can be frozen tightly covered for up to 3 months. Before serving, reheat it, uncovered, in a 300°F oven until heated through and crisp on top.

Nutrition Information

Powered by Edamam

  • Per serving (8 servings)
  • Calories: 332
  • Fat: 14g
  • Saturated fat: 6g
  • Carbohydrates: 49g
  • Sugar: 32g
  • Fiber: 3g
  • Protein: 4g
  • Sodium: 81mg
  • Cholesterol: 23mg

This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.

See more recipes:

Comments

  • I’ve made this several times. Everyone loves it! Do you bake before it is frozen or do you freeze then bake?

    • — cynthia R kuttesch
    • Reply
    • Glad you like it! I’d bake it before freezing. Hope that helps!

  • Delicious and simple! Made it twice within one weekend. Kids said it was their favorite EVER! Thank you!!!

  • Amazing! We’re at peak strawberry and rhubarb season here in Nova Scotia. OMG. The flavors! For sweetener I used 1/2 cup Swerve and 1/4 cup brown sugar, to cut back on overall sugar. Worked great! Omitted the pecans because I had none and this still came out awesome!

  • I made this recipe for Father’s Day since we were finally be able to host some friends. We moved to a new house in October and I found rhubarb growing in our new garden. Amazing taste, just perfect combination of sour and sweet. I halved the recipe so I wouldn’t end up with a lot of leftovers as I also made another dessert and I was able to save a small portion for tomorrow. Even my no sweet tooth hubby liked the crisp! It’s definitely a keeper! Thanks!

  • Could we have the fruit amounts in cups? Also, would this work in a 9×13 pan?? thx.

    • Hi Jill, When you slice the rhubarb, the volume should fill approximately 4 (measuring) cups. The sliced strawberries would be the equivalent of about 1-3/4 cups. And if you want to bake this in a 9 x 13-inch dish, you’ll need to double the recipe. Hope that helps!

    • Please could you give me the ingredient amounts in grams and millilitres. I really want to make this amazing sounding recipe, but measurement in cups I can’t do!

      • — Maggie Jackson
      • Reply
      • Hi Maggie, The great majority of my recipes (including this one) include conversions to metric/weight measurements. To view them, scroll down to the recipe, and immediately under the recipe title on the right side, you’ll see a little toggle. If you move it from “cup measures” to metric, you’ll see measurements that will work for you. Hope that helps!

  • I made this last night, and it was delicious! I appreciated the tips on proportions because I didn’t have quite as much rhubarb as called for. I love your recipes – thank you!

  • Hi, first off I love your recipes! I just made this one and a salad of yours last night and they were both delicious! I go to your recipe box first if I want to make something to see if you have a recipe for it before I look anywhere else. I am writing because my topping on this crisp and other ones I make always turn out more like powder. I followed your recipe exactly. All I can think is that maybe I blended it too long? Any advice? Thanks, Susan

    • So glad you like the recipes, Susan! Yes, if you’re finding the topping is more of a powdery texture, it sounds like you’re definitely letting it go too long in the food processor once you’d added the butter. Hope that helps!

  • What a fantastic recipe and the addition of pecans takes it over the top. I did reduce the sugar a bit because we like it tart. Served hot with whipping cream drizzled over top – delicious.

  • Made this recipe last week. It was sooooo good I’m making it again this week! We loved it!

  • Fantastic! I made this last night and everyone loved it.

Add a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.