Recipe Rhubarb Crumble

SatNavSaysStraightOn

SatNavSaysStraightOn

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A very simple recipe... we prefer our crumble mix to be less sweet and less fatty than most, so you may need to increase either the sugar or the oil to taste. use demerara sugar for a nice crunch to the crumble mix. we also often double everything and freeze some for later which if you have extra uncooked crumble mix left over is a great way of storing it.

Ingredients
2 or 3 (4 if they are small or very thin) sticks of rhubarb
75g plain wholemeal flour
50g dairy free marg
75g traditional rolled porridge oats (or tricolate oats)
30g demerara sugar
20-30ml plain oil such as sunflower or canola oil

Method
  1. Preheat an oven to 180C. Mix the flour with the margarine until it resembles breadcrumbs.
  2. Now add the oats and sugar and mix. it is important to use demerara sugar otherwise you simply don't get the crunch factor in the crumble!
  3. Add the oil until well combined and set aside.
  4. Chop or cut the rhubarb into 2-3cm length strips and place onto your cooking vessel. we prefer ours to be at least 2 layers of fruit deep so use your own judgement here. (ok I know technically rhubarb is a vegetable being a stem but...)
  5. Add some water, enough to cover the bottom half of the fruit, then add the crumble mixture to the fruit. we like it to be roughly even in depth, so the same thickness of fruit to crumble, but you may prefer it slightly thinner.
  6. Sprinkle with a tiny extra bit of demerara sugar and cook in the fire 20 minutes until the crumble starts to brown. Serve hot or cold, with a suitable dairy free custard or dairy free cream.
Photo to follow tomorrow.
 
I have a few questions as I have made rhubarb crumble many times and I am not understanding:

Why are you adding oil to the crumble? What does it add?
Why are you adding water to the rhubarb (and quite a lot of water)? Rhubarb will naturally produce its own liquid as it cooks. Surely you will end up with a lot of liquid?
 
Firstly oil. just like adding oil or making a cake with oil not butter/marg adding oil adds moistness to the crumble to a point but also makes the top a touch more crunchy. and the recipe I have used for decades contains it (original is from a vegetarian cookbook by Rose Elliott iirc at 4am in the morning

Second water. I have found that my rhubarb chooks very quickly and will be too dry if I don't add some water before the cooking time if up. the crumble takes longer than the rhubarb. this is especially try of cheap ovens (used in rental houses) that are notorious for being too hot underneath and not hot enough anywhere else and generally heat from below, not the sides, are not fan assisted etc. plus the crumble mix tends to absorb some of all of the fruit juices and adding extra stops the rhubarb burning before the crumble has started to brown.

that's just my experience. that's all.
 
Let's see if this works...

morning glory said:
OK I cooked the crumble today and it turned out just fine. The amount of sugar is just about right for me as I prefer to keep it sharp. The ginger taste comes through nicely. Here are a couple of photos. If you like the photos, with your permission, I will add them to you recipe.

View attachment 5072

View attachment 5073
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Just replying to your post regarding my crumble. as stated in my recipe, we prefer the crumble mix to be as deep as the fruit layer, not just like a gratin and think scattering of a topping. yours also looks to be a lot dryer and finer than we like. We both prefer ours to be closer to a flapjack style than yours looks like (which really resembles breadcrumbs to me.

I'll add my photo later today hopefully.
 
A couple of other thoughts occurred to me during the night.

1. Butter has a fat content typically higher than 80-85%
Margarine is generally around the 50-53% mark. adding oil will bring this closer to butter.

2. the recipe you used as your example uses plain flour. I'm guessing white. I use wholemeal. it had a much higher bran content which tends to absorb more water. adding oil will help to decrease this.

3. the recipe you tested and used as your example does not contain porridge oats. mine does and on a 50:50 ratio with wholemeal flour. I also use traditional rolled oats (add the original recipe had me do decades ago). so add more bran to the situation and a tendancy to absorb liquid/moisture.

4. crushed ginger nuts (biscuits). oil, water, sugar, white (?) flour, ginger flavouring, salt, preservatives, what have I missed (the are actually typically vegan btw).

Photos to follow.
 
Here are the pictures. This is the way our family has always had crumble. It has never been any other way and I'm not talking immediate family here either. My Grannie always used to serve it this was, though she used plain white flour. I prefer it with plain wholemeal flour. As you can see it is not running in juices at all, they have soaked into the topping and give a layered approach. The top is crisp and crunchy, then you get a rhubarb flavoured oaty section and finally the rhubarb still dark red - sorry can't do anything about that. Inside of one or two slices was slightly green but not very. Guess it is the variety they have here. Even my husband has commented on it! The crumble is deeper than it looks. I had to remove some from under the crunchy topping so that you could see the rhubarb.... OK I confess I was busy eating it!

IMG_7692.JPG
IMG_7701.JPG
 
I always add sugar to the raw fruit, then put a thick crumble topping of brown sugar/wholemeal flour/unsalted butter over it. The sugar mixes with the juices from the fruit to create a syrup. I usually cook it in a 6" cereal bowl which I find, with custard etc, is enough for two servings. If I freeze it, I melt the sugar first and then add the raw fruit and topping.
 
Elawin said:
I always add sugar to the raw fruit, then put a thick crumble topping of brown sugar/wholemeal flour/unsalted butter over it. The sugar mixes with the juices from the fruit to create a syrup. I usually cook it in a 6" cereal bowl which I find, with custard etc, is enough for two servings. If I freeze it, I melt the sugar first and then add the raw fruit and topping.
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Were it not for the fact that both of us find rhubarb quite sweet enough as it is, I would use sugar. But even the crumble mix had less sugar in it because neither of us really like very sweet desserts. I also have to use marg because I'm (fatally) allergic to all dairy! It kind of makes life target interesting, like now. I'm sitting in a cafe waiting for a soya latte, but I can't have a single cake or biscuit here because whilst they do gluten free, this that and the other free, the one thing they don't do is dairy free sadly. :(
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Were it not for the fact that both of us find rhubarb quite sweet enough as it is, I would use sugar. But even the crumble mix had less sugar in it because neither of us really like very sweet desserts. I also have to use marg because I'm (fatally) allergic to all dairy! It kind of makes life target interesting, like now. I'm sitting in a cafe waiting for a soya latte, but I can't have a single cake or biscuit here because whilst they do gluten free, this that and the other free, the one thing they don't do is dairy free sadly. :(
Click to expand...

I don't put nearly half as much sugar in as they recipes tell you to. I was told about 20 years ago that I was borderline diabetic so I drastically reduced the amount of sugar I used and have never gone back to using much except for the odd occasion when I get a sugar rush. I'm not a great fan of margarine except maybe Stork in cake and pastry making (although now I use unsalted butter). I think that harks back to the disgusting margarine we used to get just after (and during) World War II. Mum always used to use Cookeen, Trex or Stork when I was little. Just before Christmas, my daughter was diagnosed as lactose intolerant. I know it is not nearly as bad as your allergy, but it is making for some interesting substitutes when you take into account the other intolerances and allergies she has, none of which are the same as mine. I did say we could probably go to a restaurant and have one meal between us :laugh:
 
Elawin said:
Mum always used to use Cookeen, Trex or Stork when I was little.
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I use Trex sometimes in pastry as it produces a lovely crumbly result and is super easy to rub in. Its dairy free with no hydrogenated vegetable oil, e-numbers, colours or preservatives. And it vegetarian (maybe vegan?).
 
I'm pretty certain Trex is vegan. Stork in the wrapper but not in the tub was vegan as well (when I left the UK last May) . Here in Australia we are starting to see a solid cooking marg similar to Trex but mad with deodorised coconut oil as well which is good for cooking with. I've tried it on pastry and a couple of other things like cake or oatmeal cookies and it was fine. I have even recently read about how to make a whipping soya cream from normal soya cream... That's brilliant. All I need now if for Australia to realise soya cream exists! Oh for Finland again where dairy free this that and the other plus things you never knew existed exist in almost every supermarket...
 
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