Rhubarb Streusel Muffins

This isn't a new recipe to me, but I wanted something quick to put together and bake, to take to the local Cake Club meeting. Whatever I made also needed to fit in with the theme of 'Summer', and as the recent heavy rain has given my rhubarb patch a late surge in growth, using some of that seemed the most obvious way to go.

I followed this recipe from Smitten Kitchen almost to the letter - the only changes I made were to use all white flour, rather than some wholemeal, and just demerara sugar in the crumble topping, for an extra bit of crunch.

The muffins were light, not too sweet and very subtly spiced. I used 200g of diced rhubarb but I think the recipe could have taken a little more, although you do have to be wary of the amount of fruit juice produced when the rhubarb cooks, which could make the muffins too damp and heavy.

Rhubarb Vanilla Yogurt Cake

I happened upon this recipe, on the Riverford Organic Farmers website, by chance, while looking for new recipe for a rhubarb cake. I wanted one which didn't use a lot of fruit, as my crowns aren't doing well this year (I think it was the lack of a prolonged cold spell during last winter).

All I can say is that I'm thrilled to have found this recipe; it made a perfect cake! As an added bonus, it couldn't be simpler to make - dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another then combine the two and mix briefly. The rhubarb was even mixed with the dry ingredients, reducing the steps needed to mix the batter even more, as fruit is often folded in separately at the end. I think it's probably quite important to keep the rhubarb pieces small, so that they don't sink through the cake during baking, but the raw cake batter was thicker than normal, which also helps.

I did make one change to the recipe - I only had vanilla yogurt available, rather than plain, but as I wasn't adding an additional flavour, only a little more sugar, I decided to go ahead anyway. The resulting cake was light but moist, with a really tender crumb, and it wasn't too sweet either (even when using a sweetened yogurt), allowing the tart flavours of the rhubarb and orange zest to show through. It was fantastic while still warm, as a dessert, and almost as good when it was completely cold, eaten as a cake. This is definitely a cake to make again!

Rhubarb, Marzipan and Citrus Cake

I've been harvesting our homegrown rhubarb since the middle of March, and this traybake recipe is perfect for the beginning of the season when there are some thin stalks to pick. If you can only get thick sticks, then I suggest you cut them into fairly thin slices, both to distribute the rhubarb evenly through the cake, and make sure it cooks properly.

I picked this Rhubarb, Marzipan and Citrus Cake recipe because I wanted something portable to take to my daughter, who was cooking a Mother's Day dinner, and also because I know she loves marzipan.

I followed the recipe exactly, although I used the zest from the whole lemon and orange, as I didn't see the point of leaving half grated fruit - this turned out to be a good move, as the citrus flavour wasn't very pronounced, even with the extra zest. I also used fine cornmeal rather than polenta, as I can only get the quick-cook sort which is relatively coarse.

What the recipe doesn't mention is that initially the cake batter seems too stiff, and although it does slacken a little when the fruit is added, it never gets to the 'dropping' stage. Resist the temptation to add more liquid -  more juices will be released from the fruit during baking.

We all loved this dessert - there were subtle citrus notes amongst the tang of the rhubarb, and the marzipan gave concentrated pockets of the sort of almond flavour you don't get from ground almonds alone. My husband reckoned it would come a close second to rhubarb crumble in his 'favourites' list!

Rhubarb and Pecan Crumble Cake

We're coming to the end of the rhubarb season now, and many of the stalks are too tough to use, so I'm always on the lookout for recipes which use smaller quantities of fruit. That means I can pick the few tender stems and leave the rest of the leaves to pass goodness back to the crown, to feed the plant for next year's growth.

This recipe, for a simple rhubarb and crumble topped sponge cake, which I found on the Tesco website, looked easy enough, and only used 250g of fruit,  but I ended up using four mixing bowls, which is more than I like to use unless I'm cooking for a special occasion. I followed the recipe exactly (except for using pecans instead of walnuts), but made the cake in a 22cm (9") springform tin. The only thing that didn't go according to plan was that it took an hour in the oven before I was satisfied that it was properly cooked - that was a bit of a surprise, as it was quite a hot oven too!

The cake was quite tasty  but I didn't think the rhubarb, which should have been the star of the show, really came through in the flavour. The rhubarb was sandwiched between two substantial layers of crumble, and while the bottom layer soaked up the juices from the raw fruit, so that the sponge cake didn't become soggy, the brown sugar in the crumble gave a toffee flavour which overwhelmed the rhubarb.

Overall, probably not worth the effort!

Nutty Rhubarb Cake

This was going to be a rhubarb and almond cake, but I couldn't find the flaked almonds I was sure I had, so it became a cake with mixed nuts - ground almonds in the cake batter and chopped toasted hazelnuts on top. It's a recipe I've used many times before - a shortbread/scone-like dough sandwiching a layer of cooked rhubarb  - and it's become a family favourite. The dough is lighter than pastry but not as soft as a cake.

Ingredients
150g butter
150g caster sugar
1 large egg
a few drops almond extract (optional)
250g SR flour
50g ground almonds
about 400g of rhubarb (cooked with 50g sugar and drained of juice)
25g chopped toasted hazelnuts

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and base-line a 20cm (8") springform tin.
Melt the butter in a large bowl, in the microwave (or in a saucepan on the hob).
Add the sugar and stir until evenly mixed, then beat in the egg and the almond extract, if using.
Stir in the flour and ground almonds to give a soft dough.
Spread 2/3 of the dough into the bottom of the prepared tin, working the dough up the edge of the tin to make a shallow wall.
Put the fruit onto the base, making an even layer level with the top of the wall of dough.
Using fingers, break the remaining dough into small pieces and scatter over the fruit, spreading the dough to cover as much of the filling as possible, There will be gaps in the dough but these fill up as the dough spreads and rises during baking.
Sprinkle over the chopped hazelnuts and press lightly into the dough.
Bake for around 50-60 minutes, until the dough is golden brown and feels firm; cool in the tin.

Rhubarb Streusel Cake

Another recipe from Sue Lawrence's book 'On Baking' - this was the one I'd originally planned to bake, before I turned the page and saw the recipe for Date and Ginger Shortbread Squares, which I couldn't resist! I haven't added many rhubarb recipes to the blog this year, as my husband's favourite dessert is rhubarb crumble, which is so easy to prepare that I'm happy to make it regularly during the rhubarb season. This cake made a nice change from crumble, but to be honest, it wasn't as good!

Sue bakes this recipe in a 20cm (8") square cake tin, but it wasn't clear from the recipe how deep the tin needed to be, so I played safe and used a 22cm (9") round tin instead, then cut the cake into wedges to serve. It would have been OK in a shallow square pan, of the type used for brownies, as it wasn't a very deep cake, so now I'll know if I want to make it again. The dough base was quite scone-like after baking, and quite dry, rather than a light cake, but this was balanced by the moistness of the rhubarb layer on top. To enjoy this cake at it's best, it really needs eating fresh, on the day it is made.

The only change I made to the recipe was to roast the rhubarb and sugar, rather than cook it in a saucepan on the hob. I find the rhubarb is more likely to keep it's shape this way. I also drained off the juice formed during cooking.

Filling - 450g rhubarb, chopped into 3cm lengths, roasted with 50g light muscovado sugar at 180C for about 20 minutes, until tender, then cooled and drained.

Base - 85g ground almonds; 170g SR flour; 85g light muscovado sugar; 115g butter; 1 egg; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Streusel Topping - 2 heaped tablespoons porridge oats; 2 tablespoons plain flour; 3 tablespoons light muscovado sugar; 1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger; 2 tablespoons sunflower oil.

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and base-line a shallow cake tin  - 20cm square or 22 cm round.
Put the flour and almonds into a bowl and rub in the butter. Mix in the sugar, then the vanilla and the egg until everything is evenly mixed. This will not be a soft batter at this stage, more like pastry to handle.
Tip the dough into the baking tin, and use dampened finger tips to spread evenly over the base.
Carefully spoon the rhubarb over the base, leaving a small margin around the edges.
For the topping, mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl, then sprinkle evenly over the fruit.
Bake for about 50 minutes, until well-risen and golden. Cool in the tin.

Overall, this was a pleasant cake, but nothing special. If I made it again, I think I'd double the amount of topping, and perhaps add some flaked almonds, as the cake seemed a little unbalanced with such a small amount of streusel, although it was nice to see the pink rhubarb poking through.

Rhubarb and Ginger Polenta Cake

Gluten-free & Dairy-free

This is a recipe I've been using for years - two layers of shortcake-style dough enclosing some fresh fruit. I usually make it with butter and SR flour, but wanted to see whether the recipe worked if it was made both gluten- and dairy-free. I decided to use polenta in place of 1/3 of the flour, as in this Nigel Slater recipe, a commercial brand of gluten-free flour and a non-dairy spread instead of butter.

This recipe works well with any type of fresh fruit filling, but something like rhubarb, which releases a lot of liquid during cooking, needs to be cooked first, then drained. I roasted 500g of rhubarb (the first of the season, incidently), cut into 4cm lengths, with about 50g of sugar; you might need more sugar if you don't like really sharp fruit.

Ingredients
150g caster sugar
150g non-dairy spread, suitable for baking
100g polenta (I only had the instant kind)
200g gluten-free plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 large egg
500g sweetened cooked rhubarb, drained of cooking juices
3 balls of stem ginger, finely chopped

Method
My usual method is to melt the butter, then stir in the sugar and egg, then lastly add the flour, but I didn't think this would work as well with the non-dairy spread. Instead I followed the method in Nigel's recipe, which is to put all the dry ingredients into a bowl, rub in the fat, then mix to a sticky dough with the egg. The gluten-free flour and polenta made a much stickier dough than usual, which was almost too soft to work with - next time I think I'll add another 25g of flour.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
Once mixed, 2/3 of the dough is spread over the base of a 20cm springform tin, which has been greased and base-lined with baking parchment. The dough needs to be worked up the sides of the tin to make a wall about 2cm high.
Spread the fruit onto the base, packing it closely together but leaving the 'wall' uncovered.
Sprinkle the chopped stem ginger over the rhubarb, then drop the remaining dough on top of the the fruit in small teaspoonsful, starting at the edges and working inwards. Use the spoon to flatten and spread the dough as much as possible, but it isn't necessary to completely cover the fruit.
(The method of assembling the cake is covered in more detail, and with photographs, in this post.)
Bake for about 55 minutes until the cake is golden and feels solid. Cool in the tin.
The cake can be served warm but this gluten-free version is quite fragile, so I'd recommend serving at room temperature.

If liked, the top can be sprinkled with flaked almonds or demerara sugar before baking, or the cooled cake can be dusted with icing sugar before serving. As I mentioned earlier, almost any fruit can be used as a filling - sliced apples and a handful of sultanas, for instance, or sliced plums - and complimentary spices can be used in the dough, rather than ginger.

Rhubarb and ginger is a classic combination which worked well in this cake. There was just a hint of ginger in the cake dough, but the stem ginger in the filling was more pronounced and added an extra texture too, along with the graininess of the polenta. This cake was softer and more fragile than the same cake made with the usual ingredients, but I was pleased with how well the 'conversion' to a gluten- and dairy-free version turned out.

Rhubarb and Orange Cake

Our rhubarb patch hasn't been as productive as usual this year, and is already showing signs that we won't be harvesting much more. I only needed 400g for this recipe, but had to throw away several stems which were just too tough and woody to use. I think the less prolific growth is probably because last winter wasn't cold enough - rhubarb seems to need a really cold spell to perform at it's best. Although it's not a major problem, and many people say that you shouldn't harvest field rhubarb past the end of June, anyway, it's quite sad to say good-bye to rhubarb for another year!

On the whole, the fruit and vegetable garden isn't doing very well this year - June has been colder than usual, with less sunshine, and nothing is growing very fast. We had good weather at the right time for the apple blossom, though, so I have high hopes for a good harvest later in the year  - at the moment it looks as if we may actually have to thin the fruit, although there's a thing called 'June drop' apparently, so we'll wait a while before deciding whether or not thinning is needed.

At this time of the year it's good to use recipes which make a little rhubarb go a long way, and this Rhubarb and Orange Cake, from  Good Food, is a recipe I'll be returning to in future. It's very similar to another favourite recipe from Waitrose, for a cake with the same name, but the Waitrose recipe uses less flour and eggs, which results in a denser, more moist cake better suited to a dessert than a cake for the tea table, or coffee time. The Good Food cake was light and very well flavoured, and thanks to a few tips in the comments about the recipe, the fruit didn't sink and it wasn't too moist.

My oranges were quite small so I used the zest from two of them, but the juice of only one (which was 60mls) as I was mindful of the commentators who said they found the cake too moist. (In fact, the cake was a little crumbly when first cut, and I wondered if I had been too mean with the liquid, but the following day it was just right, so I wouldn't increase the liquid!) I also cut the rhubarb stalks into quite thin pieces (about 1cm), as some people found that large pieces of fruit sank to the bottom of the cake.  I used a small proportion of light muscovado sugar in the cake batter (30g with 200g caster), as I didn't have any golden caster sugar. Apart from these small changes I followed the recipe closely. My cake cooked in 60 minutes, and needed covering for the last 20 minutes to prevent over-browning. I would have been happier with a few more flaked almonds on top (I was using the last of a pack), but overall, I'm very pleased with this cake.

Rhubarb Meringue Pie

It was only after making this dessert that I realised it was somewhat similar to Delia Smith's recipe. I hadn't knowingly read Delia's recipe beforehand - perhaps it just a case of great minds thinking alike (ha ha!). It was an idea that had been  in the back of my mind for a while but it wasn't until I had some double cream leftover from something else that I finally got round to trying it.

The filling was 500g chopped rhubarb cooked to a pulp with 80g sugar. Once it was cool, I mixed in 2 egg yolks and 100mls double cream. This was poured into a pre-cooked shortcrust pie case and cooked for 20 minutes at 170C.

I made half a batch of this meringue mixture from the two egg whites, spread it over the pie filling and baked for a further 15 minutes, until the meringue was beginning to colour.

The pie filling was quite soft at room temperature, although it firmed up more after chilling. I think, for this quantity of fruit and cream, 3 egg yolks would have been better. Three egg whites would have made a better quantity of meringue too.

Using cream in the filling muted the flavour of the rhubarb quite a bit. I think if I made this again I would try Delia's method of thickening the filling with cornflour, and leaving the rhubarb in pieces rather than cooking it to a purée. Despite my criticism of the taste, this made a nice change from the crumble I usually make when we want a weekend dessert.

Rhubarb Cake with Ginger Streusel Topping

For me, there isn't a much better culinary sight than the first harvest of our home grown rhubarb! It's one of the few foods that is still seasonal for me, as I don't freeze any, so I really look forward to watching the stems grow large enough for harvesting. I'm lucky in that the variety we're growing stays quite pink after cooking, which seems unusual for unforced rhubarb - it makes desserts look much more attractive. (I've no idea what variety it is - it was already growing when we moved here.) At the moment, I'm cooking rhubarb at least once a week, even if it's just cooked fruit to eat with yogurt, rather than a full dessert.

After making the tiffin loaf last week, I had a half a pack of gingernut biscuits leftover. As they weren't the best quality, and not very nice to eat on their own, I decided to incorporate what was left of them into another dessert. I also had about 80g of condensed milk left from the same recipe, which needed using up as well. I took my inspiration for this cake from this recipe on the Delicious magazine website, but I changed the base a lot, and added crushed gingernuts to the topping, as well as extra ginger.

Rhubarb: Cut 250g rhubarb into 2.5cm lengths and mix with 50g caster sugar and 2 teaspoons of plain flour. Stand for 15 minutes, during which time most of the sugar and flour will stick to the juices seeping from the fruit.

Streusel topping: Melt 50g butter with 25g light muscovado sugar and 40g caster sugar, then stir in 100g of plain flour and 1 teaspoon ground ginger to make a stiff dough. Leave to cool. Break 60g of gingernut biscuits into coarse crumbs.

Base: 175g SR flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 2 large eggs, 50g softened butter, 50g caster sugar, 75g condensed milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons full fat natural yogurt. Beat everything together in a large bowl to give a smooth cake batter with a dropping consistency.

Assembly: Heat the oven to 180C and line a 23cm loose-bottom round cake tin with baking parchment. Spread the base mixture evenly into the tin, and top with the fruit. If there is any dry sugar mixture left in the bowl that contained the fruit, sprinkle it evenly over the fruit in the cake tin. Break up the topping dough into crumbs and stir in the crushed biscuits. (The recipe suggested that the topping could be broken into quite large pieces, but mine just turned to fine crumbs as soon as I touched it - I think it needed more butter!) Sprinkle the streusel mixture evenly over the cake. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a test probe comes out clean of any damp cake batter,  then cool in the tin.

I served this with oven-roasted rhubarb and natural yogurt. I used more fruit when serving as I felt that there wasn't enough in the recipe. 250g didn't completely cover the surface of the cake batter; I think at least another 100g of fruit could be used, if available, but this is certainly a good way to use up small quantities of fruit, if you are buying forced rhubarb.

The base was heavier than I expected - it had more of the texture of shortcake than a sponge cake - but it held up the fruit and streusel layers well. The flavour of ginger, and the extra crunch from the crushed biscuits, gave the streusel layer a good contrast to the base.


I'm sending this to the celebration of rhubarb taking place, until the end of the month, at Lavender and Lovage and Farmersgirl Kitchen - The Great British Rhubarb Recipe Round-Up.

Rhubarb or Gooseberries? A Difficult Choice!

As I mentioned a few posts ago, our rhubarb is enjoying a late spurt of growth. I believe there is an old wives' tale that rhubarb shouldn't be harvested after the end of June, but I've never taken any notice of that; I just make sure there are enough stems left on each crown to put some goodness back in for next season's growth. Then I can harvest until the stems either get too thick or start to wilt and die back.


2.5kg of gooseberries, ready for topping and tailing

Last weekend I took off the netting cage which was protecting the ripening gooseberries from the hungry birds. I lost my whole crop the first year I grew gooseberries, so have devised some form of protection since then, which goes on as soon as the fruit starts to ripen. Once it is removed all of the gooseberries have to be picked at once, as it's too difficult to put the netting back round the bushes. I was only just in time with the large bush of green fruit - over-ripe fruit had already fallen off the bush. The red-fruited bush, however, could have been left a little longer; although the fruit that caught the sun at the front of the bush was ripe, there was a lot of unripe fruit at the back.


Red gooseberry crumble

It's hard to resist any fruit straight from the garden, so I made a small gooseberry crumble with most of the red fruit, although hubs complained that I hadn't added my usual oats to the crumble mixture. I added some crushed amaretti biscuits to the flour and butter mixture instead of sugar, which added enough sweetness and some crunch, but the lack of oats made the crumble a bit dry and powdery.





Freeform rhubarb pie

Earlier in the week, I'd made a small freeform rhubarb pie with some shortcrust pastry left over after making a sausage pie. This meant we had two high-carbohydrate desserts in the space of a week, which is almost unheard of these days, but it helped me to decide what to do with the bulk of the gooseberry crop. I'm quite happy eating cooked rhubarb with yogurt, as a healthier dessert, but gooseberries really need to be cooked into a pie, crumble or cake. So, somewhat reluctantly, the gooseberries went into the freezer, saved for future baking sessions, and we'll go on enjoying the rhubarb, picked as required, for a little longer.

Of course, blackberries will soon be ready to harvest, and it looks as if it will be a bumper crop this year!

Rhubarb Shortbread Bars

With Coconut Flapjack Topping

After a slow start this year, my rhubarb has started producing stalks again - it's keeping us in occasional desserts while I wait impatiently for my gooseberries to ripen. The usual midweek dessert is just cooked fruit with natural yogurt, but the weekends are always a little more relaxed as far as calorific treats are concerned.

This recipe was devised with two of the regular baking challenges I enter in mind. This month's AlphaBakes challenge is the letter R (and I make no apologies for using rhubarb again, it's that time of year!) and the Tea Time Treats challenge is to make flapjacks and traybakes.

The base was made by rubbing 80g unsalted butter into 200g plain flour and 40g caster sugar, and pressing the crumbs into the base of an 8" square tin, lined with baking parchment. I made a small raised edge in case the fruit produced a lot of juice, and baked the base for 15 minutes at 190C. Although I've used this shortbread base before, in the same sized tin, it didn't work as well this time, and was a little fragile - I'm guessing the topping held it together better last time. I think I needed a thicker base with more butter to bind it - something with the more classic shortbread proportions of fat to flour.

When the shortbread was cooked I sprinkled two tablespoons of ground rice evenly over the surface - I find this excellent at absorbing excess juice when raw fruit is used in this sort of baking. I then topped this with 350g rhubarb, diced into cubes of  0.5-1.0cm in size. Practically speaking, this meant splitting two large rhubarb stalks in quarters, lengthways, then chopping each length into 0.5cm pieces.

The topping was made by heating together 60g coconut oil and 60g coconut flower nectar (a low GI alternative to beet and cane sugar) until the oil had melted, then stirring in 100g of porridge oats and 20g desiccated coconut. This was sprinkled carefully over the fruit to give an even layer and then the whole thing was returned to the oven for a further 30 minutes at 180C, until the fruit was soft and the topping a golden brown colour. The traybake was cooled in the tin before cutting into portions.

Apart from the fragile base, I really liked these bars. The sweet and sticky flapjack topping was balanced nicely by the tart fruit and the crisp shortbread. I had worried that the fruit might need sweetening, but the balance between the layers was just right. The addition of coconut to the topping added an extra flavour element that worked surprisingly well - I don't think I've ever tried rhubarb with coconut before!

AlphaBakes (see the rules here) is hosted alternately by Caroline Makes and The More Than Occasional Baker, who is running this month's challenge. Tea Time Treats (see the rules here) is hosted alternately by Lavender and Lovage and The Hedge Combers, who is running this month's challenge. Both hosts post a round-up of entries to each challenge at the end of the month.

Rhubarb Frangipane Tart

One of the nicest things about Spring is harvesting our home grown rhubarb, but this doesn't seem to be a good year; I think it's because it was a relatively mild winter, with no prolonged cold periods. Rhubarb definitely benefits from being cold during it's dormant period. Our apple trees have suffered from the strange spring weather too - only one had a good quantity of blossom, and one hasn't had any at all. Who says Britain has a reliable climate?

This recipe was devised mainly as a way of making a small amount of rhubarb go a long way, but also as my entry to this month's Tea Time Treats challenge, which is for open top tarts, pies and quiches.

I managed to take about 400g of rhubarb from our plants, without completely denuding any of them. Hopefully there will be more to harvest in the future, but the crowns aren't producing as many new leaves as in other years. I cooked the chopped rhubarb with 100g of sugar until most of the liquid had been driven off and it was reduced to a thick jam-like purée. This was spread into the base of a deep 20cm(8") diameter tart dish lined with shortcrust pastry - no need to blind-bake the pastry case for this recipe.

The frangipane topping was made from 100g each of ground almonds, slightly salted butter (softened) and golden caster sugar, 2 large eggs, half a teaspoon baking powder and a few drops of almond extract. These ingredients were just beaten together until light and fluffy, then spread carefully on top of the rhubarb, making sure to seal the mixture around the edge where it joined the pastry.  A few flaked almonds were scattered over the surface, then the tart was baked at 200C for 15 minutes. The oven temperature was then lowered to 180C and baking continued until the frangipane was golden and firm - the total baking time was about 40 minutes.

This is a dessert best eaten at room temperature. The rhubarb and almond flavours complimented each other well and the frangipane had a good chewy texture, contrasting with the crisp pastry and sticky rhubarb purée.

Tea Time Treats is a baking challenge co-hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and  Jane from The Hedgecombers. Each month we are invited to produce something suitable for a tea time spread, following the theme set by that month's host. This month's theme of open tarts, pies and quiches was set by Jane, who will post a round up of entries at the end of the month.

Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb

Not much activity here lately, for two reasons. One is our continuing struggle with excess weight, which means less baking, as carbs are restricted, and the second, more worryingly, is the departure of my baking fairy. I've had a couple of baking disasters recently, which means I've had nothing to post about. One disaster was a silly mistake - picking up plain flour instead of self raising - but the other was trying a new recipe which just didn't work very well on several levels.

I tried this rhubarb self-saucing pudding, after it was published in the "Cook" section of the Guardian newspaper, and it just didn't hit the right buttons. There was very little 'sponge' on top, resulting in far too much sauce, and I didn't like the combination of rhubarb and a creamy, orange flavoured, sauce. I'm not sure if the recipe proportions are wrong, or if I should have cooked the pudding in a more shallow baking dish rather than a deeper casserole dish, but the batter was very thin and had to be poured over the fruit, rather than spooned and spread.

Anyway, to compensate for a less than perfect dessert last weekend, I made a rhubarb crumble this weekend. It worked perfectly, and as a bonus, I think I've found the perfect thickening agent for excess fruit juices in puddings of this sort - ground rice! It mixes easily with the fruit and sugar and you need very little to thicken the juice. I used 2 teaspoons of rice with roughly 500g of fruit, and could have used less, as there was no excess juice after baking. I think rice absorbs much more liquid than cornflour or ground almonds, which are often suggested as thickeners.

My crumble mix, for 4-6 portions, is 100g each of plain flour, sugar (any kind will do, I used white caster this time but often use light muscovado), rolled oats and butter. I put all the ingredients into a bowl, then rub in the butter, which makes a rougher crumble mix than rubbing the butter into the flour before adding the sugar and oats. Sprinkle on top of raw fruit, sweetened to taste, and bake at 180 - 200C until golden brown - around 35 - 50 minutes depending on oven temperature.

Sometimes, you just can't better something as simpler as a fruit crumble! The rhubarb in the top photo was just roasted with a sprinkling of caster sugar, for about 15 minutes at 190C - the best way to ensure the fruit keeps it's shape.

Rhubarb and Ginger

I'm not quite sure what to call this rhubarb and ginger dessert. I thought about calling it a mousse, but it's more than that. Is it a torte? It might be, but the official definition seems to be a multi-layered cake filled with fruit, cream or mousse, and it's not as much as that. It could be a tart, or even a pie, except the ginger crumb base has no sides to support the filling. Can I just leave it like those enigmatic menus which just list the main flavours in a dish?

I made it mainly to fill the brief for this month's Tea Time Treats challenge, which is for a chilled dessert. By adding ginger, I can also enter the AlphaBakes Challenge for August, which is to use the letter G, and rhubarb and ginger are such wonderful partners anyway, that I'm always happy to put them together.

The base was the standard biscuit crumb mixture of 2 parts crumbs, 1 part butter and a little added sugar. 200g of biscuits was far too much crumb mix for my 18cm tin, which is why there are extra ginger crumbs sprinkled around the finished dessert - 150g of gingernuts would have been enough. I baked the base for 10 minutes at 180C, then cooled and chilled it before adding the mousse topping.

The mousse was a fairly rudimentary affair - 500g rhubarb, cooked and puréed and sweetened to taste. After puréeing, I whisked 2 egg yolks and 4 sheets of softened gelatine into the hot mixture. When the fruit mixture had cooled to room temperature, but before it set too solid, I folded in 4 finely chopped balls of stem ginger,  125mls of double cream, whipped to soft peaks and 2 stiffly beaten egg whites. I cooled the mixture further, before pouring it onto the ginger base, in the hope that the ginger would stay suspended rather than sinking to the bottom - that idea worked! (I will also confess that I added a few drops of pink food colouring - cooked unforced rhubarb is not an attractive colour this far into the season!)


I could have done more to decorate the mousse, and make it prettier, but if I'd piped more cream on, then FB wouldn't have eaten it. I added some more thinly sliced stem ginger and served each portion with roast rhubarb and some of the leftover ginger crumbs, with cream available separately for those who wanted it.







The Tea Time Treats challenge (rules here), to produce something for the tea table, is hosted jointly by Karen at Lavender and Lovage, and Kate at What Kate Baked. Kate is the host this month, and will post a round-up of all the chilled desserts offered as entries, at the end of the month.

AlphaBakes (rules here) is a challenge based on a randomly chosen letter of the alphabet. The dish made must feature something beginning with that letter as one of the main ingredients or part of the name. It is hosted jointly by Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes. Ros is the host this month, with the letter G, and as usual will post a round-up of entries at the end of the month.

Rhubarb and Orange Oat Bars

This oat bar is a great way to get fresh fruit into snacks, although the results weren't entirely satisfactory. I followed this recipe, adding orange zest to the oat mixture and leaving out the ginger in the fruit. I also added 30g chopped toasted hazelnuts to the portion of oat mixture set aside for the topping, and didn't add any icing. I cut the 8x8" bake into 8 portions - 16 small squares wasn't a realistic size for our appetites!

Although the bars were delicious, with the consistency of a chewy flapjack, the excess juice from the fruit made the bottom layer very sticky and slightly too soggy. The flavour from the orange zest came through well, and really complemented the rhubarb. The hazelnuts also added a welcome crunch to the topping, which helped overcome the general sogginess of the bars.

While looking for a recipe, I also saw some which cook the rhubarb to a purée and thicken the juices, before using it between the oaty layers, and I think this might be an improvement to what is basically a really good idea.

Oatbake with Rhubarb

This summer dessert is based on this recipe from The Nordic Bakery Cookbook, a collection of the favourite recipes from the Nordic Bakery in London. The original recipe used blueberries and raspberries, which aren't quite in season yet, but I used rhubarb chopped into small pieces plus a little extra sugar with the fruit. Not only did this enable me to use fruit from my own garden, but it also meant I could enter the dessert into this month's AlphaBakes challenge, which uses the letter R.

The cake is made by the unusual method of soaking oats in hot milk before mixing them into a cake batter. This is something I've only seen before in Dan Lepard's recipes, but perhaps Scandinavia is where he got his inspiration. The result is a dense, moist, not too sweet loaf which is definitely more suitable as a dessert than as a tea-time cake. We ate it with vanilla pouring yogurt, which is the nearest my husband will come to eating custard, but cream would be a good choice too.

This dessert was quick and easy to make, economical and reasonably healthy, as the oats and milk lowered the sugar and fat ratio of the batter - I can see this being made frequently using different seasonal fruit.

AlphaBakes is a monthly baking challenge co-hosted by Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline from Caroline Makes. The name is self explanatory - to bake something using a randomly chosen letter as part of the name or a main ingredient - but more information, and the rules for entry, can be found here. Ros, as this month's host, will be posting a roundup for the letter R at the end of the month.