Classic Rhubarb Crisp Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is my rhubarb crisp soggy? ›

Why is my rhubarb crumble soggy? There might be a couple of reasons: - The rhubarb will start to release its juices as soon as its mixed with the sugar so only mix your fruit right before baking. - There's to much moisture in your fruit.

Usually it's the crumble that wrong. It might be too lean, making it rather dry and everlasting to eat, or it's undercooked so that it has the pasty flavour of uncooked flour.

There is nothing in rhubarb that makes it turn sweet with cooking or baking, without the adding of sugar, in the form of sweeter fruits and berries, honey or other natural sugars or processed granulated sugar. It has to be added. Fresh or frozen rhubarb may be used."

They're supposed to be chunky and craggy, with big pieces of crumble on top. By freezing your topping, it makes it harden just slightly and that means the texture will be nice and crispy when it's cooked.”

Not enough butter, and your topping will be a dry, floury mess. Too much butter and your topping will become a greasy blob or disappointingly soggy. Some recipes will ask you to cut in cold butter along with your dry ingredients, resulting in pea-size pieces that are sprinkled across the hot fruit filling.

The main reason your crumble topping isn't crunchy is probably because you haven't used Demerara sugar. Although, it could also be that you've got your topping ingredient quantities wrong: either too much or not enough flour and butter alongside the sugar.

Double-baking the crumb topping keeps it wonderfully crisp over its jammy fruit filling.

My advice is yes, try honey! The recipe pictured above (and linked below) includes some honey along with the sugar; try making it with just the honey and see how it turns out. Sometimes, depending on how tender and fresh the rhubarb is, I even cut the sugar down by half.

What spices go well with rhubarb? ›

Mix together rhubarb, honey, flour and cinnamon, ginger and cloves, until well combined.

Incorporating coffee grounds into the soil around rhubarb plants can improve soil structure, promote microbial activity, and enhance overall plant health. Also, coffee grounds can help deter certain pests, such as slugs and snails, which may damage rhubarb foliage.

Cut the rhubarb into 1/2-inch slices, adding it to a wide, 6- to 8-quart pot. Measure out 3 cups of sugar, and stir it and the ginger juice into the rhubarb. Cover the pan with its lid, and let the rhubarb macerate at room temperature overnight, until the sugar starts to release the juice.

Rhubarb grows best in an open, sunny site with fertile, moist but free-draining soil. It will also cope in light shade. Avoid ground that gets waterlogged, as plants are liable to rot. If your soil is heavy, plant in raised beds or large containers.

Method. Put the rhubarb into a saucepan with the orange zest, juice, sugar and 2 tbsp water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 8 mins until the rhubarb is cooked but still holds its shape.

Mixing your fresh fruit with sugar and letting it sit is called maceration, and it helps draw excess liquid out of your rhubarb before it cooks out and leaves your pie soggy.

Trick one: Cornflour. This isn't totally traditional but using cornflour is a cheat's way of thickening up the fruit mixture sauce so that it doesn't become too watery. As well as this, it keeps your crumble topping crispy because the additional water that cooks out of the rhubarb can make it go soggy.

Place cut (and blanched, if desired) rhubarb on a parchment-lined baking sheet and flash-freeze until firm (about two to three hours).