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Looking for a way to use up some leftover berries? Or perhaps you have some frozen berries and you need a good recipe for them. Try this Easy Raspberry Crumble. Ready in an hour, and made with ingredients you probably have on hand right now.
We grow our own berries and I usually have a whole shelf full of frozen berries to use at any time. But I’ve notice the store often has berries on sale when they need to move them along. So we pick up a few packages and freeze them for use later. That’s where these raspberries came from.
With all these berries, I need a lot of recipes to use them. Here’s a recipe for Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies, and another for Black Raspberry Turnovers. I also have Raspberry Bars and the famous Black Velvet Cupcakes, made with black raspberries. I’m sure I’ll come up with more over time.
Today, I had a thawed bag of raspberries crying out for me to use them, and I wanted something extra-simple because I had a few errands to run later. I decided on an Easy Raspberry Crumble.
A crumble is any dessert made with a crumbled topping of oats, brown sugar, flour and butter. You mix the crumble ingredients, part it in halves, press half of it into a pan, add the fruit, thickened with starch, and then top it all with the other half of the oat mixture. You can use about anything. This recipe was adapted from an old church cookbook and it called for rhubarb originally. But you can use apples, berries, peaches – whatever you have on hand.
You really can whip this up in one hour. It takes longer to cool for slicing than it does to make it! And it always comes out great – not so sweet that the fruit is drowned out, but sweet enough for a dessert with dinner or with coffee in the morning.
USA Pan Bakeware Nonstick Square Cake Pan, 9 Inch, Aluminized Steel
- Square bakeware cake pans feature unique design with corrugated surface; facilitates air circulation for a quick release and evenly baked baked-goods
- Cake Pan is made from commercial quality Aluminized steel; a mix of steel for strength and durability and aluminum for superior heat conductivity; oven safe to 450°F
Easy Raspberry Crumble
Ingredients
- 1 cup Flour
- 1 cup Brown Sugar packed
- 3/4 cup Oats quick cooking or regular
- 1 1/2 Cup Fresh or Frozen Berries I use raspberries
- 1/2 cup Butter melted
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 cup Sugar
- 2 tbsp Corn Starch
- 1 cup Water or Berry Juice
- 1 tsp Vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a 9X9" baking pan with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, brown sugar, oats and cinnamon. Drizzle in the melted butter and mix until well-distributed.
- Place half the oat mixture in the baking pan and press down firmly to form a base. Cover the base with your fruit.
- In a medium pan, mix the white sugar, water or berry juice and vanilla. Heat until warm. Mix the corn starch in a tablespoon of water until blended, then pour into the warm sugar mixture while stirring.
- Heat the mixture until it clears and thickens – just about to boiling. Pour over the fruit in the baking pan.
- Top the pan with the remaining crumble and bake for one hour. Let cool for an hour before spooning into bowls for serving.
Notes
Nutrition
If you made this, I’d love to hear how it turned out — leave a star rating and drop a comment below! It helps me out, and it helps other bakers know what to expect.
Can I use frozen raspberries instead of fresh?
Yes — this recipe was actually made with frozen raspberries that had been thawed first. Just be sure to use the full cup of berry juice/water called for in the sauce; the liquid released during thawing counts toward that, topped up with plain water if needed.
Can I use a different berry, like blackberries or blueberries?
Absolutely. This crumble started as an old church-cookbook recipe for rhubarb, and it holds up well with almost any fruit you have on hand — blackberries, blueberries, peaches, even apples. Just swap in the same amount of fruit for the raspberries.
Does this need to be refrigerated?
Not right away — like most fruit crisps and crumbles, it’s fine covered on the counter for a day or two. After that, move leftovers to the fridge so the berry filling doesn’t spoil.
Do I need to adjust this recipe for high altitude?
No adjustments needed here — this crumble doesn’t use baking powder or baking soda, so there’s no chemical leavening to behave differently at lower air pressure. The oats and butter do all the textural work, so it bakes the same whether you’re at sea level or several thousand feet up.
Does it matter if I use quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats?
Either works here. Quick-cooking oats are just rolled thinner and milled finer than old-fashioned oats, so they’ll give you a slightly finer, less chewy crumble topping, while old-fashioned oats hold their shape a bit more. Bob’s Red Mill has a good breakdown of the difference if you want the full technical explanation.
