Rhubarb Crisp — The Faster Version, for When Something Simple Is Exactly Right

The blog has been getting some readers. I can't tell exactly how many — I can see a view counter but it doesn't mean much in terms of who's actually reading — but I got three more comments this week on the trout piece I posted last week, and someone in Wyoming asked if I'd post a recipe for campfire biscuits. I wrote the campfire biscuits piece on Wednesday night, working at the kitchen table after Patrick and Colleen had gone to bed, and it came out right — practical and plain, the way I want these posts to be, with just enough of the context to explain why you'd want to cook biscuits over coals in a cast iron skillet instead of in an oven. The answer is that sometimes you're not near an oven, and sometimes you are but the act of building the fire is part of the point.

I've started thinking about the blog more intentionally. Not in a strategy-and-metrics way — that's not how I think about things — but in a what-do-I-want-this-to-be way. I want it to be a place where someone who is alone and struggling can find something to do with their hands and body that is worth doing. Cooking and fire and the outdoors. The things that have kept me here. I don't want to say that directly because that would be making it about me, and I don't want to make it about me. I just want someone to cook the thing and feel something come back online that had gone quiet.

Drove to Billings Monday for VA and to make a sales call — I spoke to the manager of a boarding facility that keeps thirty horses year-round and asked if they'd be interested in a farrier contract. She said she'd let me know. Maybe. Maybe is a start.

Mom made her rhubarb crisp this week — the rhubarb is coming in full and she makes crisp as well as pie, the crisp being the faster version for when she doesn't want to make crust. I ate a bowl of it still warm with a spoonful of cream. Exactly right.

Mom’s crisp is the recipe I keep coming back to this time of year, when the rhubarb is coming up fast and there’s no reason to spend an hour on pie crust. It’s the kind of thing you throw together after supper while the kitchen is still warm, and it’s done before anyone asks about it. I ate mine standing at the counter with cream pooling into the hot fruit, and it was one of the better moments of the week — plain and ordinary and enough.

Rhubarb Crisp

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• For the filling:
• 6 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• For the topping:
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• Heavy cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven. Set oven to 375°F. Lightly butter a 9x9-inch baking dish or a 10-inch cast iron skillet.
2. Make the filling. Toss the rhubarb pieces with the granulated sugar, flour, vanilla, and salt. Spread evenly in the prepared dish.
3. Make the topping. In a medium bowl, stir together the oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the cold butter pieces and work them in with your fingers until the mixture forms rough, uneven clumps — some sandy, some chunky. That’s what you want.
4. Assemble. Scatter the topping evenly over the rhubarb. Don’t pack it down.
5. Bake. Bake for 38 to 42 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling up around the edges.
6. Serve warm. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then spoon into bowls. A pour of cold cream over the hot crisp is the right call. Vanilla ice cream works too.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 320 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 52g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 95mg