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This 5-ingredient strawberry dump dessert is the weeknight dessert I reach for when I want something warm and homemade without any real effort. You dump a bag of frozen strawberries into a baking dish, stir together a simple buttery topping, and the oven does the rest. It comes out bubbling and golden with a jammy fruit layer underneath and a crispy, cobbler-like top — and it disappears fast every single time.
Why You’ll Love This
Only 5 ingredients — all pantry and freezer staples, nothing you need to run to the store for
No mixer, no special techniques — you stir a bowl for three minutes and the oven does everything else
That crispy-jammy combo — the batter bakes into a buttery, golden top while the strawberries collapse into a thick, saucy layer underneath
Looks like more work than it is — it comes out bubbling and golden and smells incredible, no one will guess how easy it was
Great for weeknights — start it while you’re cleaning up from dinner, it’s ready by the time you want dessert
A Word About the Ingredients
The frozen strawberries are the whole point here — don’t let anyone talk you into using fresh. Fresh strawberries have too much moisture and you’ll end up with something soupy. Frozen raw berries (no sugar added — make sure of that) bake down into something dense and jammy in a way that fresh just won’t. I usually grab the big 20-ounce bags when they’re on sale and keep a couple in the freezer at all times now. The 16-ounce bags work too, you’ll just get more topping relative to fruit — which honestly some people prefer, especially if you’re in it for the crunchy bits.
The flour, sugar, and baking powder are your pantry staples — nothing special needed. I’ve used both all-purpose and a gluten-free 1:1 blend (the kind with xanthan gum already in it) and both work fine. The butter should be unsalted and genuinely melted, not softened, not mostly-melted with cold chunks in it. Melted. It all comes together into this thick, shaggy batter that looks more like dough than cake batter, and that’s exactly what you want.
Ingredients
– 1 bag (16–20 oz) frozen raw whole strawberries, no sugar added — still completely frozen when they go in
– 1 cup granulated sugar (you can pull this back to about ¾ cup if you’re serving it with ice cream, which I almost always am)
– 1 cup all-purpose flour
– 1 teaspoon baking powder
– ½ cup unsalted butter, melted (one stick — I just melt it in the microwave in a glass measuring cup)
How to Make It
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Get out an 8×8 baking dish — I use a white ceramic one that I’ve had since I don’t know when, and it’s fine on its own without greasing. If you have a different size that’s close, don’t stress. A round dish works. A 9×9 works. You’ll just adjust your eye on the baking time.
Dump the frozen strawberries straight from the bag into the dish. Don’t thaw them. Don’t rinse them. Just dump them in and spread them around into an even layer. The fact that they’re frozen is actually doing something — it keeps the batter from sinking all the way through when you spread it on top.
In a bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, and baking powder. Just until it’s combined and there aren’t any dry streaks. Then pour your melted butter over the whole thing and stir it together until you get a thick, clumpy batter. It’s going to look a little rough. That’s fine. Spoon or drop it over the strawberries and use your fingers or the back of the spoon to spread it around. It doesn’t have to be perfect — and I really mean that, not in the way food blogs always say it and then show you a perfectly even layer. Some of the berries should peek through. The spots where fruit is exposed will get extra jammy and bubbly and honestly those are the best bites.
Set the dish on a rimmed baking sheet — this matters, because occasionally it will bubble over and you do not want to clean strawberry juice off the bottom of your oven. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. You’re looking for the top to be genuinely golden brown, a little crisp at the edges, and the strawberry filling to be visibly bubbling up around the sides. If your oven runs cool (mine used to, before we got it serviced a few years back), err toward the longer end.
When you take it out, let it sit for at least ten or fifteen minutes before you serve it. The fruit is *extremely* hot — I learned this the hard way the first time, burned the roof of my mouth, said a word I won’t repeat here — and it also needs time to thicken up into something scoopable rather than pourable. I know it’s hard to wait. Set a timer if you have to.
Scoop into bowls while it’s still warm and serve however you like.
Variations Worth Trying
Try swapping half the flour for rolled oats — it gives the topping more of a crumble texture that I actually think I prefer. If you use brown sugar instead of white, you get this deeper, almost caramel-y flavor that plays really well with the strawberries — I’ve done that version probably as often as the original at this point. A teaspoon of vanilla extract stirred into the butter before you mix the batter in is a small thing that makes a noticeable difference. You could also do half almond extract and half vanilla if you like that flavor, though I’d go easy on the almond — it can get medicinal fast.
I tried once adding a little lemon zest over the strawberries before I topped them. It was good. I haven’t repeated it, not because it wasn’t worth doing but because I always forget I thought of it until the dish is already in the oven.
For gluten-free, a 1:1 blend works fine as long as it has xanthan gum in the mix. For dairy-free, melted coconut oil works in place of butter — the topping won’t be quite as crispy but it’s still really good.
Leftovers
If there are any — and there might not be — cover the dish and refrigerate it. It keeps well for three or four days. To reheat, I do individual portions in the microwave, though you can also warm the whole dish in the oven until it’s hot through. Don’t leave it sitting on the counter overnight. I know it’s tempting, I’ve done it, I’m not proud of it.
Please don’t refreeze it once it’s been baked. Just don’t.
A Few Last Things
This is genuinely excellent with vanilla ice cream — the warmth of the dessert against cold ice cream, the ice cream melting into all the cracks, that whole thing. But I’ve also served it with just a spoon of plain yogurt on weekend mornings when there’s some left over from the night before, and it feels slightly virtuous in a way that is entirely unjustified but I appreciate anyway.
When someone asks me for this recipe I can text it in about four lines, which always feels almost criminal given how good it turns out. That’s kind of the whole point.
5-Ingredient Baked Strawberry Dump Dessert
Ingredients Â
- 16 to 20 oz frozen whole strawberries no sugar added, do not thaw
- 1 cup granulated sugar use 3/4 cup if serving with ice cream
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted
InstructionsÂ
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Add the frozen strawberries directly to an 8x8-inch baking dish without thawing.
- Spread the strawberries into an even layer.
- In a bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar, all-purpose flour, and baking powder until combined.
- Pour the melted butter over the dry mixture.
- Stir until a thick, clumpy batter forms.
- Spoon or drop the batter over the frozen strawberries.
- Gently spread the topping with a spoon or fingers, leaving some berries exposed.
- Place the baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any bubbling juices.
- Bake for 40–50 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the strawberry filling is bubbling around the edges.
- Let the dessert rest for 10–15 minutes before serving so the filling thickens.
- Scoop into bowls and serve warm.