Gluten-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Ok, so I have a confession to make. Until this year I didn't really understand the plight of the gluten free. In the last few months I've really started hanging out with my GFF Kris. And I realize what a giant pain in the ass it is to be unable to eat gluten, particularly when all of your friends are crazy bakers. Here we are making at least one different baked good a week and nothing for our poor gluten free friend. So, when she informed me that she loved strawberry rhubarb crisp I decided to kill two birds with one stone and cook with rhubarb for the first time and give some gluten free baking a try.

An apple crisp was the first thing I ever learned to bake on my own without my mother looking over my shoulder telling me how to do it. I must have checked the recipe a hundred times and it still came out wrong the first time. My second apple crisp was when I discovered that I could trust my instincts and successfully improvise a good recipe. All of this to explain why a crisp seemed like the safest place to try something new.

I actually made this for a 4th of July party so that there would be something gluten-free to eat. Yeah I know I'm a little behind in the blogging.

Gluten-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

For the crumbly topping:

3/4 cup gluten free baking mix
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sliced almonds
8 tablespoons butter cold
1/2 tsp salt

For the fruit:

3 cups strawberries sliced
1 1/2 cups rhubarb sliced thin
the juice from one lemon
1/2 cup of white sugar
pinch of corn starch ( to hold it together)
2Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the strawberries, rhubarb, lemon juice, sugar, vinegar and corn starch in a bowl and then pour them into a 9x9 baking pan.

For the topping combine all of the dry ingredients and then work the cold butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers until it sticks together when pinched, larger chunks of butter are ok, they will provide pockets of buttery goodness. Pour the crumble mixture on top of the fruit. Sprinkle some extra sliced almonds on top for good measure.

Bake for 20-35 minutes, the fruit will be bubbling and the crispy topping will be brown.


Happy eating to all of those out there with gluten intolerance.

Stuff to Eat in the Suburbs: Cambridge—Stone Hearth Pizza

Sometimes it can be hard to take a gluten-free friend out to lunch or dinner. Pubs usually deal in foods that are fried with some sort of flour-based batter, any kind of sandwich is automatically off the menu, even salad dressings can sometimes be a dicey prospect and almost all Italian food is right out. Yet this Bostonist recently accompanied her gluten-free friend to a little pizzeria in Cambridge called Stone Hearth Pizza and discovered a new world of deliciousness, with a side of tasty gluten-free fare. Stone Hearth Pizza has locations in Cambridge, Belmont, and Needham; and is dedicated to providing customers with organic and local fare whenever possible. If you download a menu from their website you can see all the local farms they support, even their beers and wines are local.

Their dedication to local businesses spills over to their customers. What originally brought us to their door was the promise of their gluten-free pizza crust, which it turns out is crispy and light, without a hint of the grittiness that can sometimes accompany gluten-free bread products. Clearly, someone worked hard to get the consistency of this crust just right.

The restaurant's Neapolitan style fire-grilled pizzas are both inventive and well put together without an overabundance of any one ingredient, which creates a nice balance of flavors. The cheeses are fresh and well blended, and in this Bostonist’s opinion, their sauce is just right: not too sweet and not too salty.

There are several pre-imagined options available on their menu, or if you’re in the mood to be creative, just go ahead and make your own concoction from their extensive ingredient list.

The sandwiches at Stone Hearth are just as noteworthy as their pizzas. While the restaurant does not carry gluten-free sandwich bread, these sandwiches really prove that a good sandwich is all about the ingredients. Wraps are not normally this Bostonist’s thing, but it looked so delicious that she had to give it a try, and the chefs were very accommodating when we wanted to add fresh mozzarella to our California wrap. And wow, was it worth the risk!

The California wrap is a simple enough sandwich with romaine lettuce, grilled chicken, avocado, shaved red onions, and lemon Dijon dressing. Somehow the food artists at Stone Hearth Pizza managed to make this simple sandwich into something spectacular; all of the ingredients were chopped very finely and then mixed together with the dressing so that every bite contained a little bit of everything. The wrap was fresh and chewy; it (thankfully) lacked that slightly stale taste and texture that often afflict wraps. The most amazing thing was the avocado, clearly cut fresh as the sandwich was being made because it didn’t exhibit any of the watery loss of flavor that can happen with a pre-cut fruit. Somehow they managed to mush it just enough so that it still maintained enough integrity to not dribble out of the wrap but instead to cling perfectly to every other ingredient to hold the sandwich together. Every bite of this huge wrap was a joy and we kept eating it long after we were full just for the flavor of it.

Stone Hearth Pizza also offers baked pastas, both standard and gluten-free, and some very tasty salads with amazingly good homemade dressings.

The Stone Hearth Pizza in Cambridge delivers to areas of Cambridge and Somerville, so check in with your local Stone Hearth Pizza to see if they deliver to you. We highly recommend this gem to everyone and are happy to be able to suggest a gluten-free pizza option to our gluten intolerant friends who are missing their pizza fix.

This post originally appeared on the Bostonist