If this strawberry crisp recipe is not the easiest and most adaptable recipe I have seen so far, then I don’t know what is. If you think you have a quicker & tastier recipe, come forward. Otherwise, note this down.
The original recipe is called Strawberry & Rhubarb Crisp and it is from Kate Zuckerman’s wonderful book The Sweet Life: Desserts From Chanterelle. It became an instant favorite of mine. Why? For one, it is delicious. Two, it was very quick to prepare and required just a small bowl and a food processor – minimal clean-up is good! Three, once you get a hold of the streusel topping recipe, alternatives are endless. And four, it is the perfect make-ahead dessert, especially if you happen to live alone.
Once you prepare the streusel topping, you can keep it in the fridge and bake fresh single-servings with different fruit combinations any time you like. The topping has no eggs in it, so it keeps well for a long time.
You start by pulsing all the dough ingredients in a food processor. And then a quick toss of strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and flour. First the berries then the crumbly mixture and it is ready for the oven.
As I said, the variations are endless. In the short amount of time that I wrote this post, here is what I came up with:
– Apple Crisp (with ground cinnamon added into the dough)
– Pear crisp (with ground almonds added in the dough)
– Banana Crisp with Nutella Sauce (with ground hazelnuts added in the dough for extra awesomeness – although bananas may get way too mushy, but who cares when you can drizzle Nutella sauce on top, right?)
– Mango and Pineapple Crisp (served with raspberry sorbet)
– Peach Crisp (served with Vanilla Frozen Yoghurt)
I served this one with Macadamia Nut Brittle ice cream and it was delicious. Best to eat it right away tough. I took some of it to work the next day and although it was still delicious, the streusel was not as crispy as before.
STRAWBERRY CRISP RECIPE
Ingredients
4 servings
Streusel Topping
- 1+1/4 cups flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup packed, moist dark brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 5 ounces chilled butter
Fruit Mixture
- 1 1/2 pounds strawberries
- 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- Juice of half a lemon
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- In a food processor, pulse flour, salt and sugars. Cut butter into 1/4-inch cubes and add to the flour mixture. Pulse until the butter is pea-sized and coated with flour. Do not let the dough come together in a ball. Set aside at room temperature.
- Wash, dry and quarter the strawberries. Add the lemon juice and give it a quick stir. Add flour and sugar and toss alltogether. Pack the fruit evenly on the bottom of the baking dish (12*8*1 3/4 inch) and top with the streusel. Do not pack the topping down.
- Bake until the crumb topping has browned and the fruit is bubbling beneath, 30-40 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes.
- The crisp is best eaten the day it is made but will keep, refrigerated, for 4 days.
Strawberries and peaches are also a great combo for a crisp. Yummy!!
This is really simple to make and yet it looks incredibly delicious, Cenk!
Agreed, this is one of the easiest and best desserts ever, everybody loves it, from small kids to big people, just to delicious. Thanks for the inspiration, this will be my Sunday sweet treat tomorrow!!
I’m impressed at how red the strawberries stayed after baking. Looks delicious!
Brian – I think the lemon juice helped. I know from my past experiences that strawberries take on a very dull brownish shade when baked beneath a dough mixture, so I added the lemon juice this time even tough the recipe does not call for it.
Wow! I never thought of strawberry & crumble combo before! Thanks for the great recipe & inspiration. – Next time I have strawberries, I’ll hide them from my kiddo (who’d scoff them all in one go), & try your recipe out!
Tamami – I think I baked this dessert 4 times last week. It is so easy and delicious. I need another killer recipe to stop baking crisps.
Hi Cenk,
I made this last night and used 5oz (1 1/4 ) sticks of butter but the crumble didn’t look like yours. I didn’t over blend it. Crumble was smoother. What do you think?
Hi Armond – So it wasn’t crumbly? Was your butter ice cold? Because you want it really cold so that it doesn’t melt down inside the food processor.
Hi Cenk,
The crumble had a texture more of powder than anything else. The butter was out of the freezer but I left it out for about 5 minutes before cutting into pieces.
Overall it came out good but the crumble had a bit of floury texture.
The recipe was very good though…tasted very good…especially with cinnamon.
Thanks!
I tried this with strawberries, rhubarb & mango and it was fantastic.
Try to add a little oatmeal to your topping as well! YUMMMM!
it is fantastic ! I tried with blueberries without lemon juice. I think my crumb dough was over-mixed -it was coming together.. but still so delicious, thank you Cenk 🙂