A cross between a galette and a crumble, with roasted strawberries snuggled in the middle. # 411: Roasted Strawberry Crostata

I love that so many countries have their own version of a sweet-topping-with-seasonal-fruit dessert. An Italian crostata is the same slightly ambiguously delicious galette / crumble / buckle / cobbler / crisp that you see in other countries, though from pictures I’ve seen online it seems to be a bit tidier than your average fruit crumble. Another distinguishing factor is that it has a bottom crust, as opposed to just a baked topping over sliced fruit.

Do you have a preferred version? My favorite part is that the names stem from an action you take to make it: cobble together the ingredients, crumble the topping over the fruit, watch the topping buckle or crisp up in the oven. While I’ve always been less of a hot fruit fan (not enough chocolate and carbs) this crostata gets bonus points for having so much crumble it goes on the top AND on the bottom.

It’s my first time roasting strawberries! It feels perilously close to cooking them down into a jam, but feels more elevated. You are essentially concentrating the strawberry flavor by cooking off the water and caramelizing the sugars that are left, as opposed to a jam where some of the water is cooked off but the rest pairs up with the sugars to make the sticky-sweet spread that we know and love.

Roasting the strawberries the night before to get ahead of the game. I rubbed orange zest into the sugar because why not?

Unsuspecting berries before their oven adventure.

A berry crime scene! A few of them got a little extra toasty but I’m here for it.

Next morning glow up.

Going for artistically blurry because my tiny manager was in her carrier and didn’t want to keep still long enough for the camera to focus. This poor kid always has flour or crumbs in her hair; hazards of being a baking ride-along.

Rings off, diving in.

Two-thirds get packed down on the bottom of the pan to crisp up as a crust. The recipe said to squish it up to make sides as well but I didn’t want a super thick corner and crossed my fingers that the strawberries wouldn’t have enough liquid left to ooze out in the oven.

Will I ever grow up and buy demerara sugar? Or will I continue to use the seemingly endless container of coarse sparkling sugar sprinkles I got for Christmas a few years ago? Stay tuned.

Nom nom nom.

No oozing or soggy bottoms, huzzah for roasted strawberries!

Happy munching!

Recipe from: Baking Nation, Issue 01