Last night, rather late, I decided to whip up some dessert. Just to inform you of the importance of this decision I must let you know that this was my first gluten free baking attempt and I was a bit nervous. The fact is, anything with rhubarb in it cannot be ruined so I elected to whip up a delightful little rhubarb crisp and boy howdy, did it ever whip up right.
Crisps are one of my favorite dessert concoctions and I have the crumbly oat topping recipe topping memorized. For THIS specific crisp I was using gluten free flour, rolled oats as well as xanthan gum to substitute for the real, magical, good stuff (there’s just really nothing like the real thing so I don’t bother complaining any more).
I can’t say for sure the exact amount of everything I used, since I mixed from memory, but it went something like this:
Filling:
freshly harvested rhubarb from the garden out back (washed and chopped)
quarter cup of sugar (or less)
slightly less than a quarter cup of GF flour
dash of lemon juice
Crisp topping:
1/3 cup brown sugar (or slightly less)
pinch of salt
1 cup of GF rolled oats
1/2 cup of GF flour
dash of xanthan gum (don’t now if that was really needed…)
slightly less than a half cup of butter
Baked for a half hour at 350F (in case you intend to follow suit).
It was shockingly delicious with a dollop of vanilla frozen yogurt on top, so delicious that I had it again this morning, for breakfast with an endless pot of Earl Grey tea because that’s the sort of thing a girl does when there’s only one of her and there’s dessert in the house.
NOTE: In hindsight, this might
have not been a delicious dessert.
It’s been so long since I’ve experienced
a baked dessert that I might have
just been frothingly mad in the moment
of initial tasting…
You made my mouth water … thank you for the recipe! xo
Mmm – there's nothing like dessert for breakfast 🙂
wait a minute..
just how bad could any crisp be?
gluten-free or not.
fruit and oats and sugar has got to be yummy
but i've never heard of adding any "gum" binder before.
Well you see, gluten acts as the naturally occurring binding agent in regular flour. In gluten free baking and cooking, you've sometimes got to add xanthan because the natural binding agent is missing in gluten free flours and oats…..I don't know if it was needed for a crisp topping but I put it in anyway.
sounds delicious anyways!
way to turn that oven on 😉
xx
Are you cheating on me with some other pen pal?! 😉
Wiser words have never been spoken–
"anything with rhubarb in it cannot be ruined"
I heartily agree!
just an idea.
a friend made a rhubarb crisp for me, using shreve's sorghum flour "flat bread" recipe for the overlying crust. it was quite tasty. [shreve's got some great recipes in her gluten-free cookbook 🙂 ]
I have a very good friend who is exceedingly gluten-allergic; she told me that she cannot eat oats… Are they gluten-free?
sounds divine!
mom always grew lots of rhubarb in her 'enormous' garden. she would barely get it in the door to be washed, and our hands would be reaching out!
we loved it 'raw', dipped in a little sugar as kids.
🙂
Marie: I have a copy of Shreve's book! She flew one over to me from Wyo. It's great! I winged it for this recipe because…well…I had to. Sometimes baking is like that.
Sue: Yes they are. Gluten free rolled oats by Red Mill (though I am sure there are other GF companies who are supplying we, the intestinally handicapped, with rolled oats).
Dessert for breakfast. I save that for the holidays.
Mmm… piiiie. I'd be 3 times the size I am now if I did this as much as I'd like to.
Mmmm, dessert for breakfast is always delightful! When I lived at home, pies only made it for dessert after dinner right after they were made. The rest became a mad dash for breakfast.
Love all the bits and pieces you have lying around the table! On my desk at work, between the monitors, I have a piece of driftwood and shell from Maine and a rock from Vermont. It would look so barren without them!
i love rhubarb crisp! nice!
Whenever I make date squares I eat them for breakfast each day until they are gone. True story.
Alongside my tea.
I had no idea that so many of you are dessert for breakfast gals!!!!
I'm in good company.
x