Market Beet: Rhubarb Ginger Crumble

Ladies and gentlemen: We have fresh rhubarb! And I bought mine from Jett's Produce at Easton Farmers' Market. 

Rhubarb, tossed with some sugar and crystallized ginger.

This week, I'm leading a talk at Weyerbacher Wednesday night market as part of the "Market Beet" series. It's the first of what will be a once-a-month event for me. This week's topic is Market Orientation 101. We'll talk about the vendors, returning and new ones, and what they're offering to market goers right now. To inspire you to attend the market, buy some fresh produce and cook and bake with it, I've put together this crumble with crystallized ginger and some of the nuttier flours from Bob's Red Mill hanging around in my freezer. Note: You could easily make the whole thing with all gluten-free oat flour.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch rhubarb, approximately 4 cups, sliced

• 1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

• Juice of half a lemon

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

• 3 T. cornstarch

• 1/2 cup spelt flour

• 1/2 cup oat flour

• 1/2 cup rolled oats

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger

• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350˚Fahrenheit.

In a medium bowl, mix together the rhubarb through cornstarch. Set aside.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together the flours, oats, brown sugar, ginger and salt. Add the melted butter and distribute it evenly throughout the flour using either a spatula or your fingers (or both!), until you've got clumpy, buttery crumbs. 

Transfer the rhubarb-ginger mix to an 8x8 square baking dish. Using your fingers, crumble the flour-oat-sugar topping evenly across the rhubarb. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is starting to brown and the crumble starts bubbling. Remove from the oven. Let it cool on a wire rack for about an hour or so and serve as is, or with vanilla ice cream. This is heavy on the crumble—the topping has more in common with crumb cake than anything else.