A Double Crisp with Dorie

I have to start off today with a caveat.  I didn’t actually make this recipe that I’m going to share today.  Not really anyway.  Sunday I decided to make a dessert, and I really couldn’t make up my mind.  So I opened up my copy of Baking: From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan to find some inspiration.  I knew Dorie wouldn’t let me down, and sure enough, the chapter on spoon desserts caught my interest.  I decided I wanted to make a fruit crisp.  I happened to have frozen peaches and frozen mixed berried in the freezer, so I thought those would make a great crisp filling.  There are two recipes for crisp in this book, one was for individual fruit crisps- but the crisp topping had coconut, and I didn’t want to run to the store.  The other recipe was for something called a double crisp.  Double crisp! The best part of a fruit crisp is the topping, and this recipe used some of the topping as a base, giving you double that delicious topping.  I wanted to make this one.

Only, I didn’t have strawberries or rhubarb for the filling.  I decided I could improvise the filling, and use the crisp part of the recipe.  I took my peaches and berries and tossed them with some sugar and cornstarch (while still frozen) and let it at that as the filling. Then I came to the crisp topping… I didn’t have the crystallized ginger called for, and since that adds a ton of flavor, I opted to increase the cinnamon to almost a full 1/2 teaspoon.  I didn’t finely chop the walnuts-instead I coarsely chopped, and for my final change, I doubled the amount since I was using a 9×13 pan.

So I made a lot of changes to the recipe as it is written.  One of the things I love about Dorie’s recipes is that they are made for tweaking.  They are written in such a way that you can swap things in and out and play with it to suit your needs and tastes.  I thought that my version of the double crisp turned out quite good.  My filling was a touch too sweet, and I overbaked the whole thing a tad, and the bottom crust didn’t want to scoop so easily.  But overall, I really, really like the crisp topping.  As I typed this recipe in and really read the directions for the filling, I’ve decided that I need to make this as soon as the rhubarb in Mom’s garden is ready.  It sounds really delicious and tasty, and since I know the crisp part is good, I’ll be making this again.

Oh, and by the way, it does make for a fabulous breakfast- per Dorie’s instructions in the sidebar, of course.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Double Crisp

from Baking:From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

For the crisp mix:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup (packed) light brown sugar

3/4 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Pinch of salt

Tiny pinch of ground cinnamon

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

1/4 cup very finely chopped crystallized ginger

1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the Filling:

1 pound (4-5 medium stalks) rhubarb, trimmed and peeled

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup cold water

3 cups strawberries, hulled and sliced

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350ºF.  Put a nonreactive 9-inch square baking pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicon mat.

Put the flour, brown sugar, oats, ground ginger, salt, and cinnamon in  a large bowl and sift the ingredients through your fingers to blend them- be on the lookout for lumps in the brown sugar.  Mix in the nuts and crystallized ginger, then pour over the melted butter.  Using a fork, stir the ingredients until they are thoroughly moistened.  Spoon half the mixture into the pan and pat it down lightly to form a thick crust.  Set the remainder aside for the topping.

For the filling: Slice the rhubarb into 1/2-inch wide pieces and scatter them over the pressed in base.  Dissolve the cornstarch in the cold water; set aside.  Put the strawberries, sugar, and ginger in a medium saucepan and, with a fork, pastry blender, or potato masher, crush the berries.  Place the pan over medium heat and, stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to a full boil.  Pour the dissolved cornstarch into the pan and, stirring with a whisk, bring everything back to a boil.  Keep cooking and stirring until the strawberry filling is thick and no longer cloudy, about 3 minutes.  Pull the pan from the heat, stir in the vanilla, and pour the filling over the rhubarb.  Scatter the remaining crisp mix over the filling, breaking it up with your fingers so you can scatter it evenly.

Slide the crisp into the oven and bake for 60 minutes, or until the topping is golden and the strawberry jam is bubbling up all around the edges.  Transfer the pan to a rack and cool until only just warm or at room temperature.