Fresh roasted strawberry crumble made using almond meal and fresh fruit, seasoned with ginger and fresh basil. A simplistic version of strawberry pie with ice cream, is a sheet pan crumble with roasted strawberries served with a delightful vanilla ricotta cream.
Ingredients You Will Need
- All Purpose Flour provides structure for the almond meal crumble.
- Whole Almonds are ground in a food processor to make a textured almond meal with a lovely nutty flavor profile for the crumble.
- Granulated Sugar adds sweetness and moisture to the cookie crumble.
- Ginger gives a lovely zingy taste that compliments the sweet strawberries.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: A little vanilla goes a long way and tastes so good with all pastry, especially the ones with fresh fruit.
- Ripe Strawberries are roasted in the oven to release their juices and bring out an intense strawberry flavor.
How to Make Easy Strawberry Crumble
The first step to making roasted strawberry crumble is to select fresh ripe juicy summer strawberries. 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.
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.
Now, the easy part is spreading the strawberries 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.
How to Make Roasted Strawberry Crumble
Ricotta Whipped Cream
Since the underlining theme of this recipe is strawberry shortcake made 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 mixture of ricotta, vanilla, sugar, and whipped cream has a lovely consistency that doesn't over power the roasted strawberries.
Strawberry Crumble Baking Tips
Weigh Your Ingredients:
My recipes are all tested by weighing ingredient in grams to be the most accurate. By using a kitchen scale, your recipe will turn out as close to the written recipe as possible.
The recipe card includes both metric and US conversions, but since I create all my recipes with metric measurements, I can't guarantee the same results if you use a different measuring method. This is the kitchen scale I use everyday.
Swap Out the Almond Meal:
Try using another nut like pecans or hazelnuts to blend into a nut meal. If you're allergic to nuts, replace the almond meal with all purpose flour or whole oats.
Mix and Match the Herbs:
Fresh basil and mint are great pairings for strawberries, but change things up with rosemary, thyme, or lemongrass.
Make Crumble Dough Ahead:
Make the dough, wrap in plastic wrap and chill or freeze over night. The frozen dough may need to be chopped with a large chefs knife into long strips to make breaking easier. Or simply let it thaw for about 15 minutes before crumbling.
Leftover Crumble
This roasted strawberry crumble and cream is best enjoyed the day its made. 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.
you'll also love
Strawberry Crumble with Whipped Ricotta Cream
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.
Comments
No Comments