Living in the Colorado High Country is pure joy. Baking in it isn’t. High altitude makes cookies spread in the pan, cakes fall, and few baked goods turn out as they do at sea level.
This twice-monthly column presents recipes and tips to make baking in the mountains successful. It’s June, which is time for a rhubarb dessert at our house. This crisp is one of our favorites.
The play between the tart rhubarb and sweet berries, as they mingle happily under a crunchy topping, is simplicity at its best. I recommend making the topping the day before you bake the dessert and keeping it covered in the refrigerator. Baking the topping when it’s cold helps prevent it from over-browning.
You can bake the crisp earlier in the day you’ll use it and reheat it when it’s serving time. One caution: because both rhubarb and strawberries contain a lot of water, overbaking makes them soften and, often, turn to mush. The filling still tastes good when this happens, but the texture changes.
Make in six 8 ounce ramekins or in an 11x7x2-inch glass baking dish . Topping Pinch salt Fruit filling Prepare the topping (this can be done a day ahead and refrigerated, covered): Place the flour, granulated sugar and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine well. Cut the cold butter into half-inch cubes and add them to the bowl.
Use your fingertips or a pastry blender to blend the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture starts to stick together and clumps are formed. Add the oats and the pecans .
