Rhubarb Raspberry Crisp

There is still a little rhubarb left in our garden! We both seem to have childhood memories of an abundance of rhubarb all summer long, and our mom confirmed that our minds aren't embellishing things.... yet this year we're running out and it's only early July.

We were going to attach a "fruit" tag to this post, but a fun fact courtesy of Wikipedia set us straight: rhubarb is botanically classified as a vegetable! However, in 1947 a New York court decided that because it is used as a fruit, it would be called a fruit - which conveniently resulted in lower taxes on it.

Rhubarb, whether you want to think of it as a fruit or a vegetable, is very tart. We adapted this Martha Stewart recipe by adding raspberries (and reducing the sugar) to naturally sweeten the crisp.

Rhubarb Raspberry Crisp

Serves 12 (we cut the recipe in half, but the full amounts are below)

2 pounds rhubarb - sliced into 3/4-inch pieces

1 1/2 cups raspberries

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• Combine rhubarb, raspberries, sugar, and 1/4 cup of the flour. Put in 9 by 13 inch baking dish.
• In small bowl, use a pastry cutter to combine remaining 1/2 cup of flour and the butter. Add brown sugar, oats, and cinnamon. Alternatively, use the "pulse" setting on a food processor to combine ingredients. Sprinkle this topping over the rhubarb mix.
• Bake in 400 F oven for 35 - 45 minutes, until topping is golden brown and rhubarb is tender.
• If you'd like, serve with ice cream or vanilla yogurt.

Rhubarb in the garden

The stalks are edible... but the leaves are toxic

Fresh or frozen raspberries can be used

Tossed in the sugar mixture

Before going into the oven -

note that the topping is blended but still crumbly

Out of the oven

Fruit crisps are yummy for a breakfast treat too!

Cinnamon-Topped Rhubarb Muffins

A tale of two muffins.

One of the major reasons we have this blog: to save the recipes we've tried.

We have a sisters-making-muffins afternoon not too long ago, each choosing a muffin and making them side by side. However - only one recipe is making it to the blog. Not because the other wasn't sweet enough or fluffy enough or moist enough... but because one of the recipes disappeared. We can't remember where it came from or where we put it.

Focusing on the positive, we do have a rhubarb muffin recipe that remains with us still.

We found it on AllRecipes.com.

Cinnamon-Topped Rhubarb Muffins

We halved the original recipe - feel free to double the amounts below.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk --> or regular milk with 1/2 teaspoon vinegar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup finely chopped rhubarb

Topping

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• Combine the first 5 ingredients in a large bowl.
• Combine egg, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Stir into the bowl of dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in rhubarb.
• Grease muffin tins or use paper muffin cups to line the pan (that's what we did). Fill with batter.
• Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over muffins.
• Bake at 375 F for 16 - 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Mixing up the now-mysterious almond muffins

This batter was thick!

A nice light golden brown

Sprinkling the topping

Did you know that "streusel" is from a German word meaning

"something scattered or sprinkled"?

However, streusel has flour in it, along with butter and sugar.

Fresh out of the oven

Rhubarb Banana Crumble

We read the entire recipe section of April's Canadian Living magazine - separately. We reconvened. As Amy said, "There was one recipe that really stood out to me", Lisa chimed in and finished the sentence, "the rhubarb banana crumble!"

We've been waiting a few weeks to make this fruity dessert, and Easter seemed like an ideal time to try this cross between a strawberry rhubarb pie and apple crisp. It was an excellent ending to our quesadilla meal (see post below).

You might have noticed our mismatched crème brûlée containers (if not, don't look now!). Well we finally picked up real ramekins! Now we have uniformly sized containers that will make our baking adventures a little easier and a lot prettier.

Rhubarb Banana Crumble

(Canadian Living Magazine, April 2010)

Serves 8

5 cups sliced french or thawed drained rhubarb

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 bananas, chopped

3/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup cold butter, cubed

1/4 cup walnut pieces

• Toss together rhubarb, sugar, and four. Divide between 8 lightly greased ramekins or pour into a square baking dish. Cover with foil and bake in 400 F oven for 25 minutes. If using one large baking dish instead of ramekins, stir once while in oven.
• Combine oats, flour, sugars, and cinnamon. Use a knife or pastry cutter to blend in butter until mixture is crumbly. Mix in walnuts.
• Spread sliced bananas over rhubarb.
• Sprinkle crumb mixture over bananas.
• Bake, uncovered, in 350 F oven for about 25 minutes, or until bubbly and topping is light golden brown.

Frozen rhubarb - from last year's garden.

Use a pastry cutter or knife to make the crumble topping.

Foil is only needed for the first oven session.

Layer the sliced bananas over the cooked rhubarb.

Fresh out of the oven. Check out that ramekin.

We served it warm, but (if you can wait long enough)

it would probably be pretty tasty cold too.