Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch square dish, an 11 x 7-inch dish, or a 10-inch cast iron skillet; set aside.
Prepare the Filling:
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and cornstarch. Add the strawberries and lemon juice and toss gently to coat. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.
Prepare the Topping:
In a separate bowl, use a fork (or your fingers) to mix together butter, flour, oats, granulated sugar, brown sugar, pecans, and salt until completely combined. The mixture will be lumpy and clumpy and should look like a streusel crumb topping.
Spread topping evenly over the strawberries.
Bake the Crisp:
Bake until the fruit juices are bubbling and the topping is golden brown, about 45 minutes. Allow to stand for about 10-15 minutes before serving.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Top with vanilla ice cream.
Notes
Don't slice the strawberries too thin. They will break down as they bake, so you don't want them to completely disintegrate in the oven. Some chunky berries in your filling are ideal.
I like to bake the strawberry crisp in a deep 10-inch cast iron skillet. Alternatively, you can use a 9-inch square baking dish or an 11 x 7-inch baking dish. Any similar dish with a capacity of 2 ½ - 3 quarts is fine!
This strawberry crumble has theperfect ratio of topping to fruit! Don't be tempted to double the streusel and overload the crisp with more topping or the dessert will become too dense and fatty.
Swap out the strawberries and use other berries instead -- blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries are also great options! Or use a combination of strawberries with these other berries as well. Just make sure that the total amount of fruit comes to about 6 cups.
Add a dash of cinnamon or nutmeg to the crisp topping for added cozy warmth.
Instead of lemon juice, use vanilla extract in the filling.
If using frozen strawberries instead of fresh, do not thaw the strawberries before baking. You'll also need to increase the cornstarch to at least 3 tablespoons to account for the extra liquid that the frozen berries release.
I love the flavor combination of strawberries with pecans, but you can use any nuts that you prefer in the topping. Try walnuts or almonds! If you'd like to omit the nuts altogether, that's fine -- just substitute with an extra ⅓ cup of oats.
Strawberry Crisp for Two: Cut all of the ingredients in half and bake the dessert in a 1-quart dish. The rest of the instructions remain the same.