Dig Into Strawberry-Rye Crisp

Digging into that crisp. Image by author.

You may see a garden strawberry harvest in late May if you grow an early variety in Colorado, but most strawberry plants fruit and ripen in mid-June around these parts. I grew up in a southern town once well-known for its glut of early-to-mid spring strawberries, so by mid-April I crave the sweet and juicy joy of an in-season berry.

One of my favorite ways to relish plant-ripened strawberries is freshly picked and immediately eaten. In-season berries are perfectly sweet and so rare that I don't want to mess with perfection. And if I'm going to bake a dessert, a no-fuss crisp like this version allows in-season strawberries to shine. 

I added hand-milled rye flour for its tangy notes in the strawberry-rye crisp, and the rye plays well with the berries and brown sugar. I stand by the amount of brown sugar I recommend below, but if you use in-season, plant-ripened strawberries, they will likely be sweeter than what the supermarket offers, so you could reduce the sugar in the filling to 1/4 cup and call it good.

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Strawberry-Rye Crisp Serves 6

Ingredients

For Filling:

• 2 pounds fresh strawberries, roughly chopped

• 1 teaspoon lemon zest

• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For Topping:

• 1/2 cup salted butter, cubed and at room temperature

• 3/4 cup rolled oats

• 1/3 cup pecans, chopped

• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar

• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup rye flour

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. In a large bowl, gently toss strawberries, lemon zest, vanilla extract, 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Sprinkle cornstarch over the mixture, and combine until the cornstarch is evenly distributed in the mixture. Add to a 2-quart baking dish, and set aside.

3. Reusing the same large bowl, add cubed butter, oats, pecans, remaining dark brown sugar, cinnamon, and flours. Using your clean hands, squish the butter into the ingredients until you create a coarse meal of sorts. This doesn't need to be uniform in texture. The goal is to get the butter broken down and blended into dry ingredients.

4. Sprinkle the topping over the filling, and bake for 45 minutes or until the filling is bubbling and the top is a golden brown.

5. Remove from oven, and serve warm. We enjoyed ours with a caramelized brown sugar ice cream, and I have no doubt it would be delicious with vanilla bean ice cream or freshly whipped cream.