The Crunchiest Summer Fruit Crumble Recipe (2024)

This is a great idea and I will continue baking the crumble before adding to the fruit. However, I reverse the first two ingredients: 1 1/2 cups of oats to 1/2 cup of flour. More crunch and healthier. My family loves it this way.

Put the crumble on parchment paper. No need to scrub baking sheet.

Melissa Clark rules. She is getting me through this pandemic, which I am spending almost entirely in the kitchen. Like Melissa, I learned about this technique many years ago (in my case, from Cooks Illustrated), used it once, loved the results, then promptly forgot about it. I just made this recipe from Melissa, and it’s heaven. From now on, it’s an extra dirty sheet pan for me – – so what? More than worth it for that crunch, especially if you serve with luscious vanilla ice cream.

I always add pecans, lightly toasted.

Second on the toasted pecans -- or almost any nut! Pistachios, hazelnuts and almonds also great, with an optional bit of extract, if you have it.But I have to say: why do cornstarch when you can do tapioca?? It's so clear and fresh and absorbent, I don't get why anyone would ever use cornstarch, flour or arrowroot.I also highly recommend mixing one fruit and one berry, eg peach-blueberry, tangerine-strawberry, etc. You can't go wrong however you do it, but I find these duets really balanced.

It's a great idea, but taking it one step further (or backwards, perhaps?) is to sprinkle 2 cups +/- of really good granola over the fruit and bake until bubbling.

I made this gluten-free by using all rolled outs and eliminating the AP flour. Turned out delicious!

If halving the recipe, add extra butter and oats.

Rhubarb is my absolute favorite. Currants as well if you can find them.

This is fantastic. I love this crumble. Baking the topping first is a fantastic idea. I went with 2 suggestions - used parchment for baking the topping and I used 1 1/2 cups oats and 1/2 cup flour. So delicious.

Hmm topping too dry. I think proportion of butter to oats and flour were way off. I would cut flour by ½ cup and add more butter!

Made exactly as written. The topping is delicious even on its own (I nibbled), but it’s a bit like having cookies on top of cooked fruit. The topping and fruit don’t meld the way they do with a traditional crisp recipe. I won’t use this recipe again.

I suggest before combining the dry ingredients with the cold butter, try this:Place the oats in the processor and pulse 3-6 times, then add pecans and pulse both together 2-4 times. What you want it for the oats to be pulverized it bit, and the pecans to maintain some light chunkiness.Then add the flour, sugar, and butter, etc. to these and pulse together.Then bake as suggested before adding atop the fruit to go into the oven.

used 32 oz bag of frozen strawberries, tossed with the cornstarch and sugar while fruit was still frozen. Allowed it to defrost at room temperature with the coating.. perfect!

When you do this, do you add butter to the granola and do you bake it first (as this recipe provides)???

Such a favorite! I make this almost every other week. So easy to throw together, cookie topping can be made ahead and frozen.

I found the topping too dry...agree with others, needs a bit more butter, maybe more oats and less flour. The crumble was hard to get to form 1/2" crumbles.

Pre baking the crumbs is a game changer. This technique can easily be used for any kind of fruit crumble and the recipe is pretty simple. I approximated all the crumb measurements and it came out great.

This was Delicious! Made with Gluten free flour and it still worked perfectly.

Loved it!

I’m a little late to this recipe, but boy is it delicious! I followed the suggestions of others and swapped the measurements for the flour and oats and toasted the crumble on parchment paper. Made it with summer fresh strawberries and blackberries and topped off with vanilla ice cream…heavenly!

This was great even though I didn’t really follow the recipe. Was going to do 1 cup flour and 1 cup oats but then added extra oats. Cut way down on sugar and butter. Probably used 2-3 tbsp butter but then added some avocado oil. Came out great, very tasty. Used on top of half strawberries and a quarter each of cherries and blueberries.

I used a mix of fresh peaches, blueberries, strawberries, and Trader Joe's cherry berry blend. I added the rind of a lemon and a tablespoon of lemon juice to the berry mixture and 1/8 of a cup of dried shredded coconut to the topping. It was a hit and I'll definitely make it again!

Tasty but needs the cinnamon (we left it out because one of us isn’t a fan of cinnamon and baked fruit but even they decided to add it after), and truly ripe fruit. Would switch the ratio of flour to oats next time.

I reversed the oats and flour as Susan suggested, made it with strawberries and rhubarb. Not too sweet, plenty of crunch. Thank you, Melissa!

Would this freeze well?

Tried this in air fryer and it burned - also I think it needs more butter. The plum crumble bars are way better imho, but maybe it’s worth trying again next summer!

Agree about adding1/2 c oats - may do all oats next time. I made with very juicy peaches and the topping was nice and crunchy. Subbed minuet tapioca for corn starch for thickener

As some suggested, I also reversed the first two ingredients: 1.5 cups of rolled oats to 1/2 cup flour. I made the crumble the day before. It came right off the baking sheet, no scrubbing needed. I used blueberries, peaches, and a few strawberries I happened to have. I sprinkled a little balsamic vinegar over the fruit before adding the crumble. Ate it warm with, of course, good vanilla ice cream. Delicious.

Watch time in our air fryer oven