Cooking has been minimal in my life lately. The short periods of time in between feeding my little guy seems to fly by. What I have cooked has been quite simple, like the Spring Vegetable Sauté and an occasional Green Tea Latte. But my lack of time in the kitchen has allotted me time to dream of what I do want to cook, which is how this Strawberry Rhubarb Coconut Crisp came to be.
With the help of a dear friend and my loving husband, my garden has continued to grow and produce a lovely assortment of fruits, herbs, and vegetables. When we harvested this big bowl of juicy red strawberries and several stalks of bright green rhubarb (we grow the green variety), I already knew just what to do with them. You see, I’m not a big fan of making pie, mainly because I don’t enjoy making pie crust and I don’t even really like the flavor or heaviness of pie crust (that is unless it is Annalise’s pie crust – her’s is fabulous!). So, if I’m making a pie, I tend to lean towards nut crusts, like the pecan gingersnap crust on this Key Lime Pie, or the hazelnut crust on this apricot pie. When it comes to summer fruit, I go with a crisp instead of a pie.
The coconut inspiration comes mainly from my love of coconut and macaroons in general. Macaroons are one of my favorite guilt-free little treats and I just knew they would make a perfect fruit crisp topping. The crisp for this recipe is simply a macaroon recipe with added almonds. There is just a little sugar and extract to boost the flavor but it’s simplicity is what makes it so good, and easy for a new mom like myself to whip up in the kitchen! We enjoyed this crisp alfreso on our porch, with a dear friend and winemaker, Evan Lewandowski. We sipped wine, giggled at the newborn noises of Everett and chatted for hours. It’s evenings like these that make me love cool summer nights and the calmness of our new life with a baby.
What is your favorite fruit dessert of choice for the summer? Are you a crisp fan or pie junkie?!
Strawberry Rhubarb Coconut Crisp Recipe Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 3 cups ripe strawberries, quartered if large or whole if small
- 2 cups rhubarb, sliced
- 1.5 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2.5 cups unsweetened shredded or flaked coconut (I used a combination of both)
- 1/2 cup almonds (optional)
- 2 egg whites
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice fruit, mix with the cornstarch (to thicken) and set in a square 9 by 9-inch baking dish.
- In a large bowl mix together coconut, almonds, egg whites, sugar, salt and both extracts. Using your hands clump together the coconut macaroon mixture and place on top of the fruit.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until coconut browns and fruit is bubbly.
- Serve hot with vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt.
Notes
For another tasty crisp recipe visit Completely Delicious.
Blackberry Mango Fruit Crisp
Just YES to all of this – cobblers are some of my favorite desserts!
Me too Heather! There’s definitely something Southern about fruit crisps and cobblers 🙂
I have to say I love strawberries but I kinda missed the whole season this year here. It is now blackberry picki time though. Mlove, love, love, your coconut crisp idea!!!!
Debra, you’ll definitely have to try out coconut crisp on fresh blackberries… though would be delicious!
What a delicious combination. How great that it’s from your garden.
You are amazing for all the beautiful and delicious things you’ve been creating. I am with you, don’t like to mess with the actual mechanics of pastry crust, and I love a good crumble.
Good to know we are in the same boat with pie and pastry dough Jen!
What a great recipe. I love the twist on the topping. I hope I’m not too late for rhubarb this year. I can’t believe I haven’t used it yet!
Becky, I’m still spotting rhubarb at the Farmer’s Market so I don’t think you’re too late!!
It’s 10 am, I just finished baking an awesome GF pizza and this amazing Strawberry/Rhubarb Coconut Crisp, tasting them and cleaning up the kitchen…it doesn’t get any better than that…it’s great when you are able to get to bed early and wake up early, accomplish something and still have the rest of the day when everyone else gets up to enjoy it with them : )
I didn’t use the almonds, I used Organic unsweetened finely shredded coconut and organic coconut palm sugar…OMGoodness it was just like macaroons…I will definitely make this again, Thank-you for the recipe : )
Thanks so much Deb for letting me know how it turned out!! I just tried coconut sugar for the first time the other day and I think it would be perfect in this recipe too! I’ll have to also try palm sugar. Thanks for the tip. And it sounds like a perfect start to your day!
Good ideas! I used xgum instead of cornstarch and I did start with the saute to fill the house w the aroma! Chia seeds make a nice addition and I used coconut sugar , GF oats & almond flour in the topping. I know my husband will be butter in my hands after eating this new favorite! Thanks so much!
I recently tried coconut sugar for the first time and loved it!! Next time I’ll be using it in this too!! Thanks for reporting back 🙂