Mixed Berry Crumble with Gingersnaps and Lime
on Jul 01, 2025
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This mixed berry crumble is one of those easy desserts that you can just stir and dump into a baking dish and let the oven do the rest. The crumble topping has broken gingersnap cookies, oats and lime zest. This combination of spiced ginger and fresh lime has the perfect balance with sweet and tart raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.
Also, try this almond cherry crumble recipe.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
No matter the season, either fresh or frozen berries work in this fruit crumble. I base my decision on price. Even when it’s the height of berry season, frozen berries can be cheaper than fresh fruit unless there’s a good sale. When you use frozen, there will be a little more fruit syrup in the bottom of the baking dish.
Ginger and lime add wonderful fresh, zesty flavor to the crumble. Smashing gingersnaps and stirring them into the oat topping gives it something spiced along with extra crunch and the best texture. Usually you will see lemon zest or orange zest in crumble and crisp recipes, but why not use lime, especially with ginger and the combination of berries.
This is a super simple summer dessert. It is basically a stir, dump and bake recipe. When you bake something that’s meant to be rustic, there’s no pressure.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
For berry filling
- Blueberries, raspberries and blackberries: Besides flavor and variety, I like this mix of berries because they’re all around the same size. They are easy to find in bags of frozen fruit. If there are strawberries and/or pitted cherries included, that’s fine. Of course, fresh berries are fine. As mentioned, I base my choice on cost.
- Granulated sugar sweetens the berries just enough to take them from snack or smoothie level to dessert, but it’s not too much.
- Cornstarch thickens the filling. As the berries bake with the sugar, they will release their juices. Remember that frozen berries have higher water content, so the dish will have more fruit syrup in the bottom.
- Lime juice: The recipe calls for 1 lime. The juice goes in the filling, and the zest goes in the topping. Crumbles typically use lemon, but I absolutely adore lime. To me, it has an extra zippiness that works beautifully with the gingersnaps.
- Vanilla extract: Like so many baked goods, pure vanilla extract rounds out the rest of the ingredients.
For crumble topping
- Gingersnaps: I love these spiced cookies. They add their signature flavor and zing and crunchy texture to the topping.
- Oats: Always use old-fashioned rolled oats and not quick oats for the base of the crumble.
- Lime zest gives the crumble vibrant freshness. You will love it with the ginger and the sweetness of the berries.
- Light brown sugar sweetens the crumble. Gingersnap cookies are more spiced than sweet. Brown sugar has good molasses flavor, so they compliment each other.
- All-purpose flour: Together with the melted butter, flour is what helps bind the crumble ingredients. It is more of a workhorse, background ingredient.
- Melted butter is the glue for the crumble while adding richness and balancing out the acidity of the berries and the citrus.
- Kosher salt: Even in desserts, salt is the on-switch for the rest of the ingredients. Don’t worry, it won’t turn out salty.
How To Make This Mixed Berry Crumble Recipe
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square baking dish with butter.
1. Make the crumble topping. In a large bowl, combine the oats, gingersnaps, flour, light brown sugar, lime zest and salt. It should feel like wet sand.
2. Make the mixed berry filling. Stir the berries, granulated sugar, cornstarch, vanilla extract and lime juice in a big bowl.
3. Assemble the fruit crumble. Spoon the berry mixture into the prepared dish and sprinkle with the crumble topping.
4. Bake the crumble. Give it 40-45 minutes. The topping should be golden brown and the filling should be bubbling.
Serving
You can serve this triple berry crumble warm or at room temperature. Like any baked fruit dessert when you first take it out of the oven, the filling will be very hot. To check to see if it is safe to eat, dip a knife or a skewer into it. If it is steaming hot or very warm to a light touch, you should wait to eat it.
Keep things simple and serve the crumble a la mode with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side or whipped cream. It’s also great on its own.
Leftovers & Storage
Let the crumble cool to room temperature. Then you can keep it in the refrigerator in the baking dish covered with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. You don’t have to move it into an airtight container.
You can warm leftovers in a 300-degree F oven by scooping serving sizes onto a foil-lined sheet pan.
If you want to keep the crumble longer, you can freeze it up to 1 month. Rather than freezing the entire thing, I like portioning it out. Then it makes it easier to thaw in the fridge and reheat it in the oven as desired.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, both ginger and lime work with sweet strawberries, peaches and cherries. You also can adjust the the proportion of berries or use just one type, and for instance, make a blackberry crumble.
Use almond flour instead of regular all-purpose flour. It may be harder to find gluten-free gingersnaps. If you don’t have any luck, then use the topping from my cherry crumble recipe and substitute 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger for the cinnamon.
More Fruit Dessert Recipes
Raspberry Buttermilk Cake
Blackberry Lemon Yogurt Cake
Cherry Pistachio Cake
Salted Caramel Apple Pie
Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Mixed Berry Crumble with Gingersnaps and Lime
Ingredients
- Butter for greasing baking dish
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup crumbled gingersnap cookies
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 lime, zest and juice
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 2 pounds fresh or frozen blueberries, raspberries and blackberries (do not thaw if frozen)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square baking dish with butter.
- To make the crumble topping, stir the oats, gingersnaps, flour, light brown sugar, lime zest and salt in a large bowl. Then pour in the butter and stir everything together until it has the consistency of wet sand.
- In a large bowl, combine the berries, granulated sugar, cornstarch, vanilla extract and lime juice.
- Transfer the berry filling to the baking dish.
- Scatter the crumble topping over the berries. They should be completely covered.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes until the crumble topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbling.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
