Fresh summer fruit at the market on display in cardboard or wooden punnets tends to signify the beginning of pies, cobblers, and fruit bars. A simplistic version of pie with ice cream, is a sheet pan crumble with roasted strawberries served with a delightful vanilla ricotta cream.
How to Make Roasted Strawberries
The first step to making roasted strawberries is selecting the best fruit. Visit your local farmer’s market and pick up a few fresh pints of handpicked fruit. Rinse them off and remove the tops. Slice large berries in half and keep the smaller ones whole.
Now, the easy part is spreading them across a large lined baking tray. Don’t overcrowd the fruit, spread them out across the entire pan. The heat from the oven brings out the strawberries natural sugars and sweetness. Don’t overcook them or they will turn into a big jammy mush. I find that 350 F (190 C) at about 20-22 minutes works great.
Easy Baked Crumble
This simple crumble comes together in a just a few minutes. I used whole almonds that I ground into almond meal using a small food processor. You can substitute with pre-made almond meal or use a different nut like walnuts or pecans to ground.
I add a little ground ginger to the dough to give it a little zing. Ginger is a great compliment to the fresh strawberries, mint and basil used in this recipe. All are optional, but I think the flavor profile here is worth experiencing.
The dough is frozen for 30 minutes to help the butter firm. A cold dough is much easier to break into clumps that bake into a crunchy buttery topping. It truly tasted like a shortbread cookie that we’re serving with jam and cream.
*Option to make ahead and freeze over night. The dough may need to be chopped with a large chefs knife into log strips to make breaking easier if you choose to freeze over night. Or simply let it thaw for about 15 minutes before crumbling.
Ricotta Whipped Cream
Since the underlining theme of tis recipe is strawberry shortcake but into a deconstructed crumble, I choose cream over ice cream. Ricotta adds such a lovely texture and flavor to the dish with a simple hint of vanilla. A simple mixture of ricotta, vanilla, sugar, and whipped cream has a lovely constancy that doesn’t over power the roasted strawberries.
Saving For Later?
This roasted strawberry crumble and cream is best enjoyed the day of. However, if you have leftovers simply store the roasted strawberry crumble and ricotta cream in separate plastic containers. They will keep for 2-3 days in the fridge for enjoying all week.
Equipment
- 1 food processor *optional for blending almond meal
- 1 large baking tray
- 1 electric hand mixer use for whipping cream
- 1 wire whisk
- 2 large mixing bowls
Ingredients
Crumble
- ¾ cup (100 grams) all purpose flour
- ¾ cup (100 grams) finely ground almonds *substitute walnuts or pecans
- ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 7 tablespoons (100 grams) unsalted butter cold and cut into small pieces
Roasted Strawberries
- 2 pints (6-7 cups) fresh strawberries tops removed
- ¼ cup chopped fresh basil optional
- ¼ cup chopped fresh mint optional
- sprinkle fine sea salt
Whipped Ricotta Cream
- 1.5 cups (375 ml) fresh ricotta
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons (50 grams) granulated sugar divided
- ½ cup (125 ml) heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Crumble
- Place the flour, ground almond meal, sugar, ginger and salt in a large bowl, gently hand whisk to evenly mix. Add the diced butter and squeeze ingredients together until a dough is formed.
- Shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and place in the freezer. Freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.
- *Option to make ahead and freeze over night. The dough may need to be chopped with a large chefs knife into long strips to make breaking easier if you choose to freeze over night. Or simply let it thaw for about 15 minutes before crumbling.
- Freezing the crumble for 30 minutes allows for the butter to firm. This will then make for larger crumble chunks instead of small pieces that melt into the berries.
Roasted Strawberries and Crumble
- Preheat Oven to 350 F (190 C).
- Rinse fresh strawberries, remove stems and tops. Large strawberries should be cut in half, but smaller berries can stay whole. *This helps keep larger fruit chunks for the fruit crumble and not a jam like consistency.
- Cover a large baking tray with parchment paper.
- Arrange sliced berries in an even layer spread out across the baking pan. Lightly sprinkle with salt.
- Remove crumble from the freezer and slice into long ½ inch pieces with a chef's knife. Break crumble into small chunks and distribute evenly across the berries.
- Sprinkle chopped basil and mint across the fruit crumble to your liking.
- Place tray in the oven on the middle rack. Bake for about 20-22 minutes.
- **Over baking will cause your berries to become too mushy. Keep an eye on baking according to your oven. I find that 20 minutes works great for a roasted berry and a cookie like crumble. But check yours sooner if your oven tends to bake hotter.
- The crumble will not turn dark in color. It bakes into a nice shortbread cookie color and texture.
- Remove tray from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 15 minutes before serving with ricotta cream.
Whipped Ricotta Cream
- Place the ricotta, vanilla and 2 teaspoons of sugar in a medium-large mixing bowl. Use a wire hand whisk to gently stir and evenly distribute the vanilla and sugar.
- In a separate medium mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer, beat the heavy whipping cream and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Whip until medium peaks form.
- Gently fold the whipped cream into the ricotta.
Serving
- Scoop the ricotta cream into a serving bowl.
- Spoon the cooled fruit crumble onto the side.
- *Option to sprinkle with more chopped basil and mint.
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