Warning: this apricot rhubarb crumble is not for the faint of heart – if you don’t like tart desserts, this is not your cup of tea dish of crumble. If you do, keep reading! And if you’re on the fence, serve it with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream! Actually, even if you’re not on the fence, putting ice cream on top still sounds like a good idea…
I often ate dried apricots when I was growing up, but it occurred to me last summer while making apricot compote that I didn’t really know if I liked fresh apricots – I couldn’t remember ever having eaten one. Earlier this week, while reading through The Flavor Bible, I found my explanation:
“Apricot is a fruit you need to cook to help unleash its flavors. A bite of raw apricot is kind of bland and doesn’t excite very much. If you throw that same apricot into the oven and heat it up a bit, it turns into a whole different fruit.” –Emily Luchetti, Farallon (San Francisco)
And there you have it! I often wonder about the first people who figured out things like these, like that cooked apricots are exponentially tastier than raw ones (or, “Hey! Let’s see what happens if we grate this zucchini and stick it in a cake!”) I like to imagine it goes something like this scene from Ratatouille.
Ratatouille is one of my favorite animated films ever…no surprise there!
Anyway, back to this apricot rhubarb crumble. I had four apricots sitting around, begging to be made into something, and a few stalks of rhubarb left over from making rhubarb simple syrup for cocktails, so I decided to combine them into what I imagined I would bake in two individual soup crocks and call “apricot rhubarb crumble for two.” Except the volume of fruit far exceeded my mental calculations, so a third crock was called into service, but then, as it turns out, a crock full of dessert is a bit much for one person, so this recipe really serves about four. Whoops. But hey, who ever complained about having extra dessert on hand? (Answer: no one I want to be friends with!) 
- 4 apricots, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
- 2 stalks (about 1/3 pound) rhubarb, ends trimmed, cut into 1/4 – 1/2-inch thick slices
- 2 tablespoons brandy
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/3 cup oats
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
- 3 tablespoons slivered almonds
- 1/4 cup butter (vegan butter is fine), melted
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat the soup crocks (or ramekins or whatever you’re using) with baking spray, and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine sliced apricots, sliced rhubarb, brandy, and vanilla extract. In a small, separate bowl, mix together the sugar and cornstarch before adding it to the fruit. Stir to combine, then set aside.
- Prepare the topping: in a medium bowl, stir together all the ingredients except the melted butter. Once combined, pour in the melted butter and toss with a fork until all the dry ingredients are coated and small clusters form.
- Portion out the fruit mixture into the soup crocks (you may want to use a slotted spoon to do this, if there is a lot of liquid), and spoon the topping on top.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the rhubarb can be easily pierced with a knife. Serve warm.
- The time may have to be adjusted, depending on what you bake the crumble in. If you bake it in a casserole dish, it will take longer to bake than in individual portions.
how pretty is that!!! so yummy 🙂
Thanks so much!
Sounds delicious! Love the apricot + rhubarb combination, that’s one that you don’t usually see but it looks great. 🙂
Thanks! This pairing just kind of happened – I had both sitting around and figured, heck, why not? (I love your blog name, btw!)
I adore crumbles and love that you combined the apricots and rhubarb. It looks delicious!!
Thanks! Apricots and rhubarb work together quite nicely 🙂
bring on the rhubarb desserts.. this looks awesome!
I agree! Thanks!
I hope you used a spoon (not the fork in the photo) to get every delicious morsel of this beautiful dessert!
Come to think of it, I don’t remember…but knowing me, I’m sure I used whatever would best enable me to scoop up every bit!
Love crisps! apricot and rhubarb sound wonderful together, this is a combination I would love to try. Happy week-end to you!
Thanks, and I hope you get a chance to try it! A lovely weekend to you as well!
It looks so delicious and I love crumbles!
Thanks! Me too 🙂 They’re actually fairly healthy, too, as far as desserts go…
I love this idea of combining rhubarb with apricot. Never had it but it sounds delish! Cannot really imagine someone not loving crumble with a scoop of ice cream. 🙂
Thanks! I can’t imagine anyone not liking crumble with ice cream either, but if such people exist, then more for the rest of us! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
I’ve been seeing so much rhubarb and strawberries but not with apricots. Sounds like such a yummy combo!
Thanks! I do love the strawberry/rhubarb combo, but I wanted to branch out and see what other fruits pair nicely with rhubarb – apricot certainly does, in my opinion 🙂
I wonder the same thing about how people ever figured out how to cook these things (like who ever figured out that boiling an egg would be such a good idea, seriously!?). This combo sounds neat, I’ve never cooked with either apricot or rhubarb before, but now I really want to try! 🙂
I know, right?! Glad I’m not the only one who wonders about these things. Thanks for stopping by, and let me know how it goes if you try this!
This sounds delicious. I don’t make a lot of crumbles, but I drink a lot of tea, and suddenly am coming to the conclusion that the would make a very perfect combo. I think I will have to try this recipe! I have little experience (actually none) with rhubarb, but certainly am looking forward to trying… ! Thanks for posting. Lovely photos, as well 🙂
I like your blog. This is my first visit and it has a nice style. The food images on your sidebar in the grid-like setup… is that a wordpress plugin, or.. how did you get that like that?
Glad to have found your blog!
Thanks so much for stopping by – I’m glad you’re here! The collection of sidebar images is a wordpress.com “gallery” widget (I myself haven’t done anything with plugins yet). Looking forward to checking out your blog as well!
Yum, yum yum. I’m a total lover of tart things so I loved your “warning” about how tart this is 🙂 I bet I would love it. And I noticed the comment above me asking about the photos in your sidebar – I agree, they look really great.
I agree – this would be perfect for a fan of tart desserts, like yourself! And thanks, I’m glad you like the side photos 🙂
This looks so pretty and delicious! I love crumbles and I usually do it with apples, I’ve actually never even had rhubarb before! Looks amazing and delish. 🙂
Thank you!! You should give rhubarb a try sometime – it’s really quite lovely 🙂
This sounds amazing! Crumbles always taste so good! Love the apricot and rhubarb! 🙂
Thanks! Apricot and rhubarb go together surprisingly well.
I love rhubarb crumble! I’ve never tried it with apricots before but they sound like they would work so well together!
They really do! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
These look wonderful! And yay, brandy 😉
Thank you! Yes, I have a bad (/good?) habit of just tossing brandy into desserts and seeing what happens 😛
Ah so good! I discovered how much I love the rhubarb + stone fruit combination when I stumbled upon my peach rhubarb bar recipe last summer (which I’ve lately started making again, about once a week!). I’ll have to try this one, too, brandy & all!
Ooh, peach rhubarb bars sound delicious!! I’ll definitely check those out 🙂
I propose that the person who said that a raw apricot is bland has never had a tree ripened apricot. To me, an apricot that is soft or even goopy (but not rotten) when it comes off of the tree in my back yard is one of the most amazing things to put into my mouth – EVER. Many of my friends feel the same. Store bought apricots are picked too early for shipping, but you might try putting them in a paper bag with a banana, until soft, and see what that does. Or better yet get some soft ones at the farmers market.
I can certainly imagine that a tree-ripened apricot is another matter entirely, but I’ve never had the chance to try one – lucky you! That’s a good idea to try putting them in a bag, though. I’ll have to try that sometime!