Browned-Butter Rhubarb Crisp

By Yossy Arefi

Updated April 28, 2022

  • An overhead image of a baking dish filled with chunks of rhubarb and topped with a crisp, browned sweet topping. To the left is a bowl with a serving, topped with ice cream.
    Dane Tashima for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
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Total Time
1 hour 20 minutes
Rating
5(579)
Comments
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Making a crisp is one of the best and easiest ways to highlight seasonal fruit. Crisps come together quickly with no special equipment, and they are a great way to use the odds and ends of fruit in your refrigerator. This recipe highlights one of spring’s finest flavors: rhubarb. It is often paired with berries, but here, rhubarb shines on its own, with tart, puckery flavor and gorgeous color. Browned butter and almonds add toasty, nutty notes to the topping, making this an almost-effortless, high-impact dessert. You may notice that 2 tablespoons of the butter aren’t browned; they are added to the hot browned butter to cool it down a bit so that you can use it immediately. Feel free to swap an equal amount of rolled old-fashioned oats for the almonds in the topping. Serve this cozy dessert with whipped cream or ice cream, if you like.

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Ingredients

Yield:8 servings

FOR THE CRISP TOPPING

  • ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons/141 grams unsalted butter

  • 1 ¼ cups/160 grams all-purpose flour

  • ½ cup/100 grams light brown sugar

  • ½ cup/55 grams sliced almonds

  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) or ¼ teaspoon fine salt

FOR THE RHUBARB

  • 2 pounds rhubarb, chopped into 1-inch pieces (8 cups)

  • ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons/113 grams granulated sugar

  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

  • 2 teaspoons vanilla paste or extract

  • ½ teaspoon finely grated orange zest

  • Pinch of kosher salt

  • Vanilla ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream, to serve

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

62 grams carbs; 68 milligrams cholesterol; 525 calories; 10 grams monosaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 16 grams saturated fat; 30 grams fat; 4 grams fiber; 145 milligrams sodium; 5 grams protein; 40 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, brown the butter: Melt ½ cup/113 grams of the butter in a small skillet set over medium heat. (Use a skillet with a light interior so you can easily see the milk solids change color.) Cook the butter, stirring occasionally and scraping the milk solids off the bottom and sides of the pan as needed, until the milk solids turn golden brown and smell toasty, a few minutes. Transfer the butter to a medium heatproof bowl. Cut the remaining butter into 2 pieces and add it to the bowl with the hot butter. Stir occasionally until all the butter melts.

  2. Step 2

    Add the flour, brown sugar, almonds and salt to the butter, and stir together until evenly combined and clumps form. You may need to use your fingers to do the last bit of mixing.

  3. Step 3

    Prepare the rhubarb: In a 9-by-9-inch (or 9-inch round) baking dish, combine the rhubarb, granulated sugar, flour, vanilla paste, orange zest and a pinch of salt. Stir until combined and evenly mixed. Press the rhubarb gently into the pan, then scatter the crumble evenly over the top.

  4. Step 4

    Bake until the topping is deep golden brown and the rhubarb juices are bubbling, 55 to 65 minutes. Cool slightly, then serve warm with ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. The topping will soften as it sits.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
579 user ratings
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Comments

sue

Delicious! Very rhubarb-y!!! Made with ingredients as stated. Only had 8x8 glass dish, worked fine. Note that I do look at recipe commenter suggestions to reduce sugar to avoid being "too sweet" but would not do that here. This struck a good balance. There was some sweetness but it still very much allowed the rhubarb tartness to come through and let rhubarb be a dominant flavoring.

M

The brown butter is such a tasty addition to the crumble and definitely adaptable for many fruits. I was always intimidated by brown butter, but it isn't as hard as I feared. I only had 1 lb of rhubarb from my CSA, So I added frozen blueberries. Also had an excessive amount of ginger from said CSA, So I added about 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of finely chopped ginger. Ginger and rhubarb is a delicious combination!

Salma S.

I made this with only a pound of rhubarb in a 9-inch round and pecans instead of almonds with great results. One of my go-to rhubarb recipes!

Msesf

Had 12.5 oz rhubarb, so added 12.5 oz strawberries (I generally don’t find the strawberry-rhubarb combo inspiring). Mixed ¼C sugar, with 2T flour, 1t vanilla ext, 1t Cointreau, orange zest, pinch salt into fruit. Made full amount of topping, and added ½ cup rolled oats & ¼ cup each sliced almonds and chopped pecans. 350 in 8x8 glass pan for 55 minutes. Base soft but not runny and plenty sweet, but tartness still comes through. This strawberry-rhubarb combo actually is inspired and tastes perfect

Dea BP

Way too much sugar....cut sugar down from 1/2 to 1/3 cup in rhubarb portion. Only used 4 cups of rhubarb....in a 9x 9 pan it would have over flowed!!?? Whole almonds only in pantry therefore just chopped them in the blender into small pieces but not finely ground. No orange rind just added 1/4 cup of orange juice from previously derinded orange. I am sure everything will come out just fine!!

Kim

I now get the comments about the topping not being "crisp." I used pecans instead of almonds and added a handful of oats, both of which I toasted in a pan and the topping still had a softer texture than expected. My guess is melted butter causes it? The brown butter flavour didn't cut through enough in my opinion to make it worthwhile if this is the reason the texture is off. I enjoyed the rhubarb with the orange zest and vanilla, but would not follow this method for a crisp topping again.

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