This apple rhubarb crunch recipe with oats dessert is amazing! Using fresh or frozen fruit like our Cranberry Apple Cobbler, we added an Old Fashioned oatmeal crisp to the top. It is great for brunch, breakfast or a light dessert.
Have you made a fresh rhubarb dessert? They’re easier than you think and great with other fresh fruits like apples or strawberries. We found some fresh rhubarb in the store and thought we’d make an apple rhubarb crunch dessert today! (affiliate links present)
Apple Rhubarb Crisp Recipe
Maybe it was something that was more commonly used “back then”. It must be because I had a hard time finding it in the store myself! SO, this year we are growing fresh rhubarb in our garden!
My Grandmother used it like all the time in pies and in savory dishes too. I will admit it is harder to find it in grocery stores nowadays if you live in rural areas like we do. That is why I was so excited that it grew so well right at home.
Ingredients
- Fresh rhubarb is best
- Apples – peeled and diced, we used Fuji
- Sugar, white to sweeten
- Butter salted or unsalted works
- Flour for the crumble
- Brown sugar to sweeten
- Old Fashioned Oats – not instant for topping
- Cinnamon for the oats
- Cornstarch to thicken the sauce
Variations
For a dairy free option you can use a vegan plant based butter product. Other than that it would be fine for those who need lactose free options. If you need a sugar free option, use Splenda brown sugar instead.
You could use another fruit with it instead of apples if you wanted to. I think the texture is best with Fuji or Granny Smith but it’s your choice. Like our huckleberry cobbler which is quite versatile too.
Frozen Rhubarb Crisp with Oats
You could use frozen rhubarb if it was out of season, it would just have more liquid and wouldn’t be as firm once it defrosted so the texture would be different than here. Your best bet is to leave in a bowl on the counter for 1.5 hours or so to thaw, drain all the liquid out and measure from there.
How to Make Rhubarb Crisp with Apples
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Peel your apples, core them, and cut into 1″ cubes. Slice fresh rhubarb into 3/4″-1″ pieces as well. Put these in a bowl.
- In a bowl combine together your chunks of fresh fruit, white sugar and cornstarch. Mix together so fruit is nicely coated.
- Pour your mixture into a greased square 8×8″ square baking dish.
In another bowl mix your crunch ingredients together. I use 1/2 c brown sugar with melted butter, oats, and other ingredients. - It’s sweet for my taste. If you wanted it sweeter you could increase sugar to 3/4 c. Pour this over rhubarb mixture.
- Put pan into the oven for about 40 minutes, until fruit is as tender as you’d like it to be and top is golden brown. Allow to cool on a cooling rack for at least 15 minutes before serving to solidify.
Served warm with ice cream with any remaining crumbs or oats you have left over…or add some more. Once it’s lightly browned take it out and allow to cool a bit to solidify. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top when serving if you dare!
Personally I think fresh is always best BUT I do live in an area that snows so it is rarely actually in season and available. So…..YES, it can be substituted with rhubarb from the freezer. You can do this two ways. When it is fresh, buy extra, slice it as you’d want to use it, and freeze in freezer bags. OR buy frozen from the get go.
Green rhubarb isn’t as sweet as it is unripe. It is safe though you would want to add more sugar into the mix or recipe. It just means that it hasn’t had as much time to ripen as other stalks which is why people prefer red.
No. I didn’t. Some do use a peeler to remove some of the outside as you would with celery but it isn’t necessary. When I make this crunch recipe I don’t bother.
How long do you bake apples and rhubarb?
You can bake these two together for a bit of a kick, a great duo that takes about 40 minutes until both get tender. With a bit of sugar and oat crumble on the top if you wish makes a fresh fruit dessert that is a wonderful summertime treat.
Other easy desserts with fresh fruit
- Once you’ve enjoyed our fresh rhubarb recipe you could use a few more green apples and make our Bisquick apple cobbler.
- If you only have canned fruit pie filling, this dump peach cobbler is amazing.
- Fresh blueberry pie is one of my favorites
- This Instant Pot apple crisp takes just 1 minute to cook.
Rhubarb Crunch
Equipment
- 1 8×8 pan or 9×9
- 1 Bowl
Ingredients
- 3.5 c rhubarb, we used fresh, diced, if frozen defrost and drain liquid in bowl before measuring
- 3/4 – 1 c sugar, 1 cup if you want it on the sweeter side
- 4 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 c apples, peeled, cored and diced
- 1 c old fashioned oats
- 1/2 c butter, melted
- 1/3 c all purpose flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 c brown sugar
Instructions
- Mix together your rhubarb, sugar, cornstarch and diced apples gently so all fruit is coated well.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray 8×8 pan with non stick spray.
- Pour fruit mixture into pan.
- Mix together melted butter, oats, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl until everything is combined well. Sprinkle this on top of your fruit mixture in your pan so it is spread evenly across.
- Put in oven for about 40-45 minutes or until top is lightly golden brown. Allow to sit to thicken up a bit. Serve with ice cream on top if desired.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My dessert is not out of the oven yet so I can’t say anything about the finished product. I will say something about the recipe,though! I made this exactly as the recipe said…….up to putting it in the oven. The topping just didn’t seem right to me but I had done everything like the recipe said. OK, maybe I’d better check again, maybe??? Then I noticed 1/3 cup of flour was called for in the recipe ingredients but not included in the instructions. A new baker might not have wondered about the topping. I think you had better edit your recipe and include the flour in the topping ingredients
Fixed, sorry about that. Must have had a “mommy moment” when I was writing it down