Raspberry Rhubarb Crisp

Its that time a year when the raspberries in the front yard are abundant and the old growth rhubarb is growing out of control.  Thank goodness for my wife’s insight into planting fruit bearing trees and shrubs.  Seriously though, if you own even a tiny bit of yard, grow food!  You will save so much money!  Most of the time I can barely keep up with how much we have and end up giving it away!

The first time I discovered rhubarb was in my 20’s in a pie.  In my 20’s?  well there is a first time for everything.  Since then I have loved this unique plant whose leaf is toxic to eat and stem looks like a beautiful red celery.  It will pucker your mouth to suck on it raw but add some magic sugar, bake it and the result is “magic delicious” as my little 7 year old cousin says.

Today, my niece Sofi had spent the night and after breakfast we decided it was a great day to harvest some front yard bounty. Sunny but slightly overcast with the perfect breeze.  I put Ethan in the Ergo baby carrier and off to the front yard to harvest fresh raspberries!  I decided to take a little bit of raspberry, mush it up and let Ethan try it.  Ethan is my 7 mos old son who tries a bit of everything and so far it is hit and miss depending on the day.  Well, he was facing out and I reached around and tried to put a little in his mouth and met some resistance, then I felt an eyelash!  Oooops!  I craned my neck to make sure he was ok and sure enough he had protected his eye but had red raspberry smeared above and below his eye like a warrior ready for battle.  Once I realized he was okay, phew, I couldn’t stop laughing long enough to tell Sofi.  Poor babe!  Probably set back the trust vs. mistrust growth stage, never know when your mother is going to stick food in your mouth let alone your eye!

Anyways, we also had an abundance of rhubarb and while I already had plans to make a rhubarb crisp I had the bright idea to add some raspberries, cause why not?  I used a recipe I have had for a while that I have made my own, not sure where I got the original as it is now handwritten into a cookbook I have had since I was 19.

First I finely chopped up 4 cups of rhubarb mix in about a cup of raspberries and set it aside.  Next I melted a 1/2 cup of butter and then in a bowl mixed it with 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1 cup of rolled oats and 1 cup of flour.  I saved about a 1/2 of a cup of this mixture and set it aside and the remaining got patted into the bottom of my favorite greased 9″ pie pan.  I like to use a deep dish pie pan personally so that nothing spills out and I can fill it extra full.

Now I pour the chopped rhubarb/raspberry mix over the bottom crust of the pie.  I set this aside then mix 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of cold water and 1 T of cornstarch in a saucepan, stirring and simmering until it thickens and begins to bubble some.  This then gets poured over the rhubarb and raspberry mixture evenly.  Lastly, I sprinkled the reserved crumbs over the top and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

Yum, I just took it out of the oven and it smells amazing.  The raspberry is going to add that berry summer taste and smell.  Now that I am done I am thinking that it might be fun to try some chopped up roasted pecans in the crumble.  Next time as there is plenty for another batch.  Seriously though, if you have the opportunity, plant a raspberry bush.  They are pretty low maintenance and you will have years of raspberries.

Let me know if you make this recipe and how you like it! Also share if you made any variances and how it turned out.

Disclaimer: This is not my own recipe but I have had it for awhile and not sure where I got it from. The raspberry variance is my own.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 cups finely chopped rhubarb
• 1 cup raspberries
• 1/2 cup of butter melted
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup of flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of water
• 1 Tb of cornstarch

Directions

• Chop up rhubarb finely, mix with raspberries and set aside
• Mix melted butter, brown sugar and flour in a bowl and set aside 1/2 a cup of mixture. Pat the rest on the bottom of a greased pie pan.
• Pour the rhubarb/raspberry mixture into the pie pan
• Mix the sugar, water and cornstarch in a saucepan and simmer while stirring until it thickens and starts bubbling. Pour over rhubarb mixture.
• Crumble the brown sugar mixture over the top.
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes.

Let it cool off a few minutes and then enjoy!