Rhubarb Crisp is a delicious and easy dessert that takes just minutes to prep! With the perfect balance between sweet and tart, everyone loves this easy recipe.
While I love to make Apple Crisp in the fall, rhubarb crisp (or Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler) are my summertime go-tos! A saucy fruit filling topped with our favorite buttery crumble baked until golden and bubbly.
My friend Val recently shared a big bag of rhubarb with me and as soon as I saw it, I knew I would be making a rhubarb crisp!
If you haven’t made a lot of rhubarb desserts, you may be wondering how to prepare rhubarb for crisp. Can you eat the green part of rhubarb or can you eat the leaves? Are you supposed to peel rhubarb for crisp? Preparation of rhubarb is so simple.
How to Prepare Rhubarb for Crisp
- Remove from the plan and cut off the leaves. Wash thoroughly.
- You do not have to peel rhubarb, however if the stalk is quite thick peeling the tougher exterior may be a good idea.
- The fresh rhubarb can be chopped and refrigerated or frozen for future recipes.
Keep in mind, you can eat the green stalk however the leaves are poisonous to eat so discard them (for humans and animals alike).
How to Cook Rhubarb Crisp
This delicious crumble dessert is easy to make!
- Wash and dice your rhubarb. (And prepare strawberries if you’d like Strawberry Rhubarb crisp)!
- Toss fruit with a flour, sugar, and cinnamon.
- Prepare the crisp topping.
- Sprinkle topping over fruit layer and bake until golden brown.
This recipe makes a small crisp but it can easily be doubled for a 9×13 pan. This will feed a crowd, or leave you with plenty of leftovers for your family!
How to Store Rhubarb Crisp?
As with other desserts like pie, it can be allowed to sit at room temperature for a short time. If you are leaving it for several days, it would be a good idea to refrigerate any leftovers.
Can You Freeze Rhubarb Crisp?
Rhubarb itself freezes very well, simply wash, slice and place in a freezer bag. To use from frozen, just add directly to the recipe from the freezer (you may need to increase baking time slightly). I love to make rhubarb crisp with frozen rhubarb in the cold winter months! The answer is most definitely yes, you can freeze rhubarb crisp!
Combined with your favorite fruit or used it all by itself, this recipe will make the best rhubarb crisp you have ever tasted!
Simple, tart and delicious this old-fashioned rhubarb crisp recipe is perfect for fall as you harvest your fruit!
More Great Fruit Desserts
- Strawberry Rhubarb Pie – Classic combo.
- Easy Fruit Pizza – Fresh berries on a cookie dough crust.
- Strawberry Rhubarb Upside Down Cake – Sweet and tart.
- Blackberry Cobbler – Easy summertime classic.
- Rhubarb Strawberry Cobbler – Fresh rhubarb & berries baked into a tender cake.
- Strawberry Cheesecake Pie – Easy no bake dessert!
Rhubarb Crisp
Ingredients
- 6 cups rhubarb
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Topping
- ¾ cup rolled oats
- ¾ cup brown sugar packed
- 6 tablespoons flour
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 6 tablespoons butter
- ⅓ cup coconut shredded, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Wash and rinse rhubarb and cut into ½" pieces.
- Toss rhubarb with sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Place in a 2 qt baking dish.
- In a separate bowl, combine topping ingredients with a fork or pastry cutter. Sprinkle over rhubarb mixture.
- Bake for 35 minutes or until rhubarb is tender and topping is golden.
- Cool 5-10 minutes before serving. Top with ice cream or cream.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dessert
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More Summer Desserts You’ll Love
- Blueberry Pie
- Blueberry Cobbler – Reader favorite
- Berry Fluff Jello Salad
- Peach Cobbler
- Strawberries and Cream Cake
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Delicious!!!
Wonderful. I did enjoy the addition of coconut to the topping. I melted the butter, unsalted, before stirring it into the topping mixture–it turned out perfectly crisp. This is a keeper for sure.
Can this be frozen and baked later?
Absolutely Julie. To bake rhubarb crisp from frozen, preheat oven to 375 degrees F and bake about 50-60 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
Tasty – but 35 minutes was not NEARLY enough time to bake. At 35 minutes it looked just like it did went it went it, so I turned the oven down to 350 and gave it another 25 & it was perfect. I also substituted almond flour for the flour & slivered almonds for the coconut. Yum!
I have a bunch of frozen rhubarb. Should I thaw it first before baking?
You can also find this information in the post. Hope it helps:
Rhubarb itself freezes very well, simply wash, slice and place in a freezer bag. To use from frozen, just add directly to the recipe from the freezer (you may need to increase baking time slightly).
I’m new to doing anything with rhubarb, but have inherited a large plant. Was looking for an easy dessert recipe and this was it. I did do strawberry too and it was excellent. Jammy filling and just right amount of sweetness.. and so quick to out together!!
LOVED this recipe, and so did the friends we served it to! We made it dairy-free by using room-temperature coconut oil (plus about 1/4 tsp of salt) instead of butter. Thank you so much—we’re definitely making this again! ♥️
Very good! I cut the sugar with the rhubarb to 1/3 C., the brown sugar in the topping to 1/2 C., and the butter to 5 T. Worked brilliantly and tasted great. Obviously a little tarter, but was still sweet enough for me. Yummy!
Is the coconut sweetened or unsweetened?
Any coconut will work but I love using Sweetened coconut for this recipe.
Very, very delicious. I did half strawberries and half rhubarb and it was so jammy and tasty. Included the coconut in the topping and would definitely do so again. Could possibly cut the sugar in the filling but I’d be hesitant to change anything because it was so good as it is.
Did you use the melt butter or soften butter?
We do not use melted butter for the topping. Chilled butter helps to create the crumble topping. Hope that helps!
Perfect balance of flavors. Sometimes I add less cinnamon and use a a dash of ginger and nutmeg in the topping.
This is a wonderful dessert.❤️ I substituted toasted pecans for the coconut and it was delicious. Thank you for your delightful and great recipes, which I use a little lot. Thanks.
Love the new addition to your recipe, x1 x2 x3. So helpful no more guessing
Thanks, Betty! So happy we could add that feature for readers ❤️
This is, by far, my favorite rhubarb crisp recipe. It’s not too sweet, so it doesn’t drown out that luscious tang of fresh rhubarb! Thanks, Holly, for a rhubarb go-to recipe.
Do NOT cut the rhubarb. Pull gently away from thevtoot.
Agreed!
Resources that we’ve found indicate that you can either rip it off, or cut it. I was taught to cut it by my grandma!
If you pul;l it from thr root, it will send a message to produce more. If you ut it , the message is to stop and go to seed.
Thanks for sharing that, Chris!
This was great !
Is the butter for the topping to be at room temperature or straight from the refridgerator?
Thanks.
Hi Christine, for the crumb topping we cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter or fork.
Can I make this in a thin baking sheet about 10×15?
Hi Makayla, we have not tried baking this recipe in a pan that size. Maybe another reader can offer some insight. You would most likely need to watch it carefully and reduce the cooking time to avoid overcooking though.
I thought this was a great recipe. I doubled the filling but not the topping and put in a 9 x 13″ pan.
Was good warm and cold. It was like eating an oatmeal cookie – so good.
So happy to hear that, Cat! Glad you enjoyed it.
Made this recipe for dessert tonight, used frozen rhubarb and coconut, smells and looks divine can’t wait to taste it!
Can you use frozen rhubarb & frozen strawberries? Someone gave me frozen rhubarb and I have strawberries frozen from the garden. Should you defrost before baking?
Hi Susan, as mentioned in the write-up, we just add in the frozen rhubarb directly. You may need to cook a little longer for frozen rhubarb.