Family Chow Hall

Fresh Rhubarb Crisp

February 23rd, 2010

How do you make five kids extremely happy? By transporting rhubarb from their home state to the southern state they live in and making a surprise rhubarb crisp for them after a weekend away.

Sounds a little weird, doesn’t it? I think so, too. Surprisingly, one of the things my kids miss the most about living up north is rhubarb. It simply cannot be grown in the southern states. The plant requires 2 - 3 months of constant cold temperatures in order to thrive and we don’t have the right weather for it. Consequently, we can’t buy it in the stores, either. It’s funny, the things you take for granted and then suddenly miss soooo… much.

For you southerners, rhubarb - the part you eat - is a bright red and green stalk that appears something like celery. It is very tart, but delicious when baked up with sugar in a pie, crisp, or cake. The leaves of the rhubarb plant are very large and they are poisonous. It crops up in the springtime and you just break the stalk off near the ground and chop the leaf off of the top. To prepare, you usually dice it before putting in the pie, cake, or crisp. If you live in the south, keep your eyes out for rhubarb in the freezer section of your grocery.

To learn more about rhubarb and see a nice photo, click here.

Last weekend, I flew north for my nephew’s wedding, (Way to go, Curt!) and brought 20 cups of chopped rhubarb, compliments of my dear mother, home in a cooler in my suitcase. 2 hours after returning home, I had steaming fresh rhubarb crisp cooling on my countertop. I got this recipe out of our family cookbook, submitted by my cousin Wanda. Check it out below:

Fresh Rhubarb Crisp
makes one 11 x 7 pan, which will last about 5 minutes if your kids haven’t had rhubarb for several years

1 c. brown sugar
1 c. flour
3/4 c. oats
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. butter or margarine
4 c. chopped rhubarb
2 T. cornstarch
1 c. sugar
1 c. water
1 t. vanilla

In a large bowl, using a pastry blender, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, and butter until it looks crumbly. Use half of this to form a bottom crust in a greased 7 x 11 pan. Set the other half of your crumb mixture aside.

Next, lay the chopped rhubarb on top of this crust. In a sauce pan, combine the cornstarch and white sugar. Add the water and vanilla and heat to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir constantly until it is thick and clear. Now pour this sticky mixture over the rhubarb.

Finally, sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture over the gooey rhubarb. Pop it into the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or so.

Rhubarb crisp is best served warm with vanilla ice cream on top. Enjoy!

Entry Filed under: Desserts, Old-Fashioned Foods, Pie, Recipes