rhubarb-strawberry crisp

We sort of invited ourselves over to our friends’ house last night, so I felt that I should make a decent dessert to take along and share. Flipping through my cookbooks, I found this recipe and remembered the beautiful scarlet red rhubarb that I’d been seeing at the store recently and decided that this was what I had to make. So I went and got my rhubarb and my half flat of strawberries and set to work. Here are the beauties getting ready to receive their topping:

And here it is hot from the oven:

The recipe is from this cookbook, and is as follows.

Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp

8 oz strawberries, hulled
1 pound rhubarb, diced
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup ground almonds
generous 1/2 cup cold butter
1 egg, lightly beaten

If the strawberries are large (mine were the size of nectarines), cut them in quarters or halves. Combine the strawberries, rhubarb and sugar in a 10-cup baking dish. Preheat the oven to 350.

In a small bowl, blend the cornstarch with the orange juice. Pour this mixture over the fruit and stir gently to coat. Set the baking dish aside while making the crumb topping.

In a bowl, toss together the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and ground almonds. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Stir in the beaten egg.

Spoon the oat mixture evenly over the fruit and press down gently. Bake until browned, 50 minutes to 1 hour, then serve warm with rich vanilla ice cream.