Gluten Free Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp

Gluten free Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp is a perfect spring dessert and changing the fruit combinations turns it into a year round recipe. For gluten free you simply need to learn a few tweaks to get fruit crisp back on your list of easy go-to desserts.

Canadians love rhubarb. It comes up in the garden early and grows all summer long in back lanes and gardens everywhere. Just like zucchini gardeners give it away and cooks dream up creative uses for it. As well as this crisp I make rhubarb muffins and coffee cake every year. More unusual recipes are barbecue sauce and punch.

Ingredients

Gluten free cooks thicken the fruit base with cornstarch and use safe gluten free oats for the crunchy topping. Family and friends who want to cook for you want to know what desserts they can make. This is one they can safely make with those two tips.

• rhubarb
• strawberries
• sugar
• cornstarch
• gluten free oats
• EGFG gluten free flour blend (sweet rice flour, potato starch, sorghum flour, millet flour)
• brown sugar
• cinnamon
• butter

See recipe card for exact amounts.

Substitutions

Cornstarch - If you can't tolerate corn, tapioca starch is a good substitute used in a 2:1 ratio. In this recipe replace 3 tablespoons of cornstarch with 6 tablespoons of tapioca starch.

Gluten free flour & rice free option - Whenever you substitute a different gluten free flour blend the results will be different. Your job is to pay attention to the blends you're using and what you like or dislike. This is how you'll learn to bake things you love that everyone wants to eat.

If you like to experiment with different flour blends I explain in detail how I do that in these two posts, Banana Muffins and Granola Bars. If you have a rice free blend try it.

Since oats is the base of the dish a good choice for a single flour would be oat flour. Sorghum flour, often used as substitute for oat flour, is another good option.

Variations

The Brits call this dessert a crumble and it is exactly the same as a crisp. Variations of fruit crisp are a fruit cobbler or a grunt.

Cobbler - To make a fruit cobbler change the crunchy oatmeal topping to a biscuit dough. By blobbing the raw dough over the fruit base the cooked topping has a cobbled look thus the name. Bake it exactly the same as the crisp.

Grunt - A grunt is simply a cobbler cooked on the stove instead of in an oven. That makes it ideal for camping but I haven't done that for a very long time.

Best fruit combinations for crisp:

• Any berry combination all spring and summer (my mom always includes rhubarb).
• Peaches and blueberries, blackberries or raspberries in late summer when peaches are at their best.
• Just apples or apples and blueberries in late summer and early fall.
• Apples and/or pear with cranberries from October into the new year.

Individual Serving Size - Portion this dessert into individual ramekins then bake as directed. This is more work up front then easy to serve.

Gluten Free Lifestyle: Understanding Safe Oats

Living gluten free means learning about food manufacturing, labeling laws and so much more. Finding and following credible resources is key and helps you avoid getting drawn in to a Facebook fallacy.

• Tricia Thompson over at Gluten Free Watchdog, investigates and shares excellent information on all things gluten free. Her post Oats produced under a gluten-free purity protocol: Listing of suppliers and manufacturers, outlines what gluten free cooks need to know.
• For a detailed conversation about the process of growing safe gluten free oats listen to Episode 79: News From Only Oats on A Canadian Celiac Podcast.
• Listening to podcasts is the best way to keep up on the never ending changes in the gluten free space. Episode 271: Only Oats is Back, is an example of the challenges food manufacturers face and ongoing changes companies make to provide us with safe gluten free food.

Top Tip

Let family and friends who want to cook for you know they too can buy safe oats. These buying choices support manufacturers that the gluten free community depends on. Here are a few options for gluten free oats.

• Montana Gluten Free Raw Oatmeal
• Bob's Red Mill Old Fashioned Oats
• Nature's Path Organic Oats
• A Canadian line of oat products, Only Oats

If you're new to gluten free you can find more on oats and oat products in this post, Gluten Free Whole Oats vs Quick Oats.

Gluten Free Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp

Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp is a perfect spring and summer dessert, especially when served warm with ice cream. Vary the fruit and you've got a year round dessert everyone will love!

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Canadian

Keyword: Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp

Servings: 8 people

Author: Cinde Little

Ingredients

FRUIT CRISP

• ▢ 3 cups chopped rhubarb
• ▢ 2 cups strawberries thickly sliced
• ▢ ½ cup sugar
• ▢ 3 tablespoon cornstarch

OAT TOPPING

• ▢ 1 cup gluten free whole oats
• ▢ ⅓ cup EGFG gluten free flour blend* (or oat flour)
• ▢ ¼ cup brown sugar
• ▢ 2 tablespoon white sugar
• ▢ ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ▢ 6 tablespoon butter, room temperature

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Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Combine rhubarb and strawberries in a large bowl.
• Sprinkle sugar and cornstarch over the fruit. Stir using a spatula until evenly combined.
• Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square glass baking pan. Set aside while you make the topping.

STREUSEL TOPPING

• In a medium bowl combine oats, flour, sugars and cinnamon.
• Using your hands or a pastry cutter, squish the butter into the dry ingredients until evenly mixed.
• Spread the streusel evenly over the fruit without packing it down.
• Bake in preheated oven for 45-55 minutes until the topping is golden and the fruit juices are bubbling around the edges. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.
• Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Notes

*EGFG flour blend: 300g sweet rice flour, 300g potato starch, 200g sorghum flour, 200g millet flour (makes ~8 cups)

Vary the fruit combinations with what's in season.

• • Any berry combination all spring and summer (my mom always includes rhubarb).

• • Peaches and blueberries, blackberries or raspberries in late summer when peaches are at their best.

• • Just apples or apples and blueberries in late summer and early fall.

• • Apples and/or pear with cranberries from October into the new year.

Let me know in the comments below if you made this Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp or if you have a favourite fruit combination.