Rhubarb Crumble is a quintessentially British dessert. Its sweet and sour fruit contrasts beautifully with the crumbly, shortbread-like flavour of the topping. Pair it with custard, ice cream or clotted cream, and you have dessert heaven!
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Table of contents
Rhubarb Crumble Recipe
It is one of my favourite desserts of all time. While I love apple crumble and in the autumn – it always makes an appearance on our dinner table – rhubarb crumble to me, is phenomenally better.
Take a look at the recipe and you’ll see that making rhubarb crumble really is simplicity itself. There is no need to pre cook the rhubarb; you just chop it up, mix it with some sugar, cornflour and ginger and dump it in the baking dish.
Ginger is great with, I almost always add ginger when using rhubarb. Like in our Homemade Rhubarb Gin, below.
Then you top it with the crumble mixture, which again, is a case of rubbing the butter into the flour, with added sugar. My crumble is straight up flour, butter and sugar, I don’t believe in messing with perfection and altering the taste by adding oats and stuff.
We add demerara sugar for added crunch. Demerara sugar is just that toffee flavoured coarse brown cane sugar you get in sachets for coffee. It’s processed in the same way as turbinado, so you can use that too, if you’re not in the UK.
Everything can be done under an hour and while the crumble is baking, you can go wash up, then put your feet up.
Making Rhubarb Crumble Ahead
You can make the crumble topping the day before and place it in a bag and store in the fridge. If you don’t have a food processor, making the crumble can take a bit of time and effort (15 minutes instead of 5!). The next day, get the crumble out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you intend to bake, then just break it all up with your fingertips (keep it light and airy) before topping the rhubarb.
If I’m serving it as a dessert for a sit down meal, I prepare the filling up to 4 hours ahead, cover with clingfilm and place it in the fridge. The crumble will also have been prepared earlier. Then, about 1 hour before dessert is to be served, I pop into the kitchen, assemble the rhubarb crumble and bake it in the preheated oven for about 1 hour, so that’s an additional 15 minutes to make up for the cold rhubarb.
And while I wouldn’t bake it the day before to serve guests, because it’ll no longer be crumbly, I love it the next day, heated up in the microwave oven.
It is a super easy dessert to make, so there really isn’t much to say about it! There is a fine line between too sweet a rhubarb crumble and just right, so that’s always something to bear in mind. The recipe here gives you a lovely balance between the topping and the filling. You may find it a bit heavy on the crumble, because that’s my favourite part! I’m always “exchanging” crumble for filling with the family!
Shall we get our aprons on?
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Lin xx
Rhubarb Crumble
Equipment
- A round baking dish with a diameter of about 20-23cm (8-9in) , and at least 5cm (2in) deep. Or something similar sized, any shape.
Ingredients
- 500 g rhubarb
- 60 g white sugar
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cornflour
Crumble
- 200 g plain flour
- 150 g cold salted butter
- 60 g demerara sugar
- 30 g white sugar
To Serve
- custard or ice cream, clotted cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200˚C (400˚F / 180°C Fan).
Rhubarb Filling
- Chop the rhubarb into 2.5cm (1in) pieces and place them in a bowl.500 g rhubarb
- Sprinkle the white sugar, ground ginger and cornflour all over and mix thoroughly using your hands. Place in the baking dish and set aside.60 g white sugar, ¼ tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp cornflour
The Crumble
- If you have a large chopper or food processor, place the cold butter and flour and pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand, then tip into a large bowl. Otherwise, chop up the butter into little cubes and rub into the flour using your fingertips. Don’t knead. Do all this in a large bowl.150 g cold salted butter, 200 g plain flour
- Add the demerara and white sugar to the flour/butter mix and using your fingertips, mix it all in. Do not overwork, keep it light, crumbly and airy.60 g demerara sugar, 30 g white sugar
Assembly
- Sprinkle the crumble all over the rhubarb in an even layer. Don’t press it down. This will leave the crumble light and crispy.
- Bake for about 35-45 minutes, until the top is a golden brown, looks crispy and the sides are bubbling a little with the rhubarb. I like mine brown and crispy, so I tend to go for 45 minutes. It's a matter of taste.
- Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes, then serve as mentioned above.custard
The last time I saw a rhubarb pie was on some Jamie Oliver show and your recipe looks so easy and drool worthy. And this would definitely make a lovely surprise at the dinner table along with ice cream as you have suggested.
Yes, ice cream is super awesome with this! Thank you Shaheen!
Am a sucker for British pies! Shephard’s pie being my favorite. SO this one right here goes into my folder. I love how simple the preparation is – “I can go wash up while it’s in the oven” NICE!
My sweet-toothed family will love this. Thanks for sharing.
Haha, that’s awesome! Let me know if you make it! x
I love rhubarb and I love crumbles…I am vegan but this looks SUPER easy to veganize. Ima do it. Thanks!
You’re absolutely right, just the butter.
Wow. Mm… yummy This looks so delicious! Gotta try this recipe
Thank you!
I don’t think I’ve used rhubarb in a crumble recipe before. It looks amazing though and I would love to try it.
It sure is.