Strawberry Rhubarb Bars

I love rhubarb season! It's one of the first things to appear at the farmers market each spring and leads the way for all the other local fruits and veggies to come! I came to my love of rhubarb later in life, as I don't think I was ever exposed to it until after college.



These bars are typically make in a square or rectangular plan, but as you can see, all I could find was a round one. I put the excess in a loaf pan and baked that up, too. Whatever works for you; this isn't one of those fussy desserts. The star of the show is the taste and texture - crunchy, buttery top and bottom layers and the nice sweet/tart filling sandwiched in between! I had a piece still warm from the oven and topped it with a scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt. The bars firm up quite a bit after they are cooled.

I adapted a recipe from Culinary in the Country, which is an awesome blog that you should check out: http://desertculinary.blogspot.com/2005/05/strawberry-rhubarb-oatmeal-bars.html I added cinnamon and coconut to mine because I think they go together so well with rhubarb.



Recipe

Filling:

• 1/2 cups 1" chopped fresh rhubarb



• 1 1/2 cups sliced fresh strawberries



• 1 tablespoon lemon juice



• 1/2 cup granulated sugar



• 2 tablespoons cornstarch



• 1/4 cup cold water

Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  


• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
  


• 1/4 cup shredded coconut (I used sweetened but unsweetened would be good)
  


• 1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
  


• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  


• 1 tsp cinnamon
  


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  


• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  


• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  
  

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease 9"x 13" pan.

Prepare Filling:

1. Cut strawberries and rhubarb into roughly 1" pieces.


2. Cook rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar in a saucepot over medium heat until rhubarb begins to soften - about 8-10 minutes. Stir frequently to prevent any burning or sticking.


3. Dissolve cornstarch in cold water (this is called a slurry and prevents the cornstarch from clumping) and then add to rhubarb strawberry mixture. Stir mixture vigorously and continuously, boiling for about a minute (make sure there are bubbles in the middle, not just around the edges of the pot).


4. Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl or other container (to stop cooking and prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan). Set aside.

Prepare crust:

1. Combine all of the crust ingredients in a bowl, except the walnuts.


2. Stir until mixture resembles coarse crumbs but is well-combined.
   

Assemble:

1. Press 2/3 of crust mixture into even layer in your pan.


2. Spread filling evenly on top, making sure to get into all the corners!


3. Sprinkle remaining third of crust mixture and the chopped walnuts on top.

Bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown. Once cooled, drizzle on a simple glaze made from powdered sugar and milk or cream (just whisk it together until you like the consistency. Start with a smaller amount of liquid then you think you'll need - it doesn't take much).

Brown Butter Rhubarb Cake

I was lucky enough to be able to stop by the farmers market on Nicollet Mall last Thursday. Normally, I'm in class but we had our summer break last week. I didn't think that I would be able to because I had training for work that day - but we got out early! Yay! I was also able to stop by the Friends of the Library book store (got some old cooking magazines) so it was pretty awesome, overall.

Anywho, I bet you're wondering about this delicious cake, right? I found one seller who still had some rhubarb and snatched some up. I thought rhubarb season was over and was resigned to waiting another year.

Since this might be it for an entire year, I was anxious to pick just the right rhubarb recipe. Well, this one doesn't disappoint! It's got the delicious nutty brown butter, the tart and tangy rhubarb, and just enough sweetness! The only change I made was to toss the rhubarb with some brown sugar and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the top before baking. Make sure to really whip those eggs or you're cake won't rise as much as it should.

Here is the recipe, courtesy of Emily Kuross and her blog:

http://www.fiveandspice.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/brown-butter-rhubarb-cake/

Some Treats in Red, White, and Blue!

I made a few patriotic type treats this past week. Above is a pic of some red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. The pics below show two ways to decorate them. It's actually pretty easy, although a little time consuming, to make your own pinwheel decorations but I found these on sale! The other pic has some plastic stars on top, in addition to the blue and red sprinkles. That was kind of an accident, as my top-heavy cupcake rolled over onto the stars. Since the stars aren't edible, maybe just go with the sprinkles!

I also made a black-raspberry fool, shown below. I think I overbeat the whipped cream a little but it was still delicious. Just berries (of which we have a ton, having gone picking at a our favorite secret spot) and whipped cream, folded together.

Last, here is a pic below of the tart I made earlier this week. I used store-bought puff pastry because I had some I had to use up. It also has some pastry cream and I'll give the recipe and instructions for that in another post.

Rhubarb Bars

We got our second CSA box of veggies last week. Hurrah! In that box was some delectable-looking rhubarb. I wanted to make something that would be easy to cut into portions and something I haven't tried before.

I used this recipe and modifed it somewhat:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Streusel-Rhubarb-Dessert/Detail.aspx

My modifications were replacing half the white sugar with brown sugar and using 1/4 cup oats in the streusal topping in place of part of the flour. The crust and topping is quite sweet, which is somewhat balanced by the tart rhubarb filling. However, I would definitely add some salt in either the topping for the crust and maybe some additional spice such as cardamom or ginger. Ooh, how about orange zest in the crust?! That would be tasty. In any case, these were good but definitely for people who like their dessert on the sweeter side.

Cherry Pie Recipe FINALLY

Okay - finally. Here is the cherry pie filling recipe that I used. There's a link at the bottom to the piecrust recipe, too.

Ingredients:

• Canned Cherries (not the pie filling stuff, just cherries in juice/water) 16 oz
• Drained cherry juice 6 oz
• Cold Water 2 oz
• Cornstarch 1 oz
• Sugar 7 oz
• Salt .25 oz
• Lemon Juice .33 oz
• Almond Extract To Taste
• Butter .75 oz

1. Combine cold water and cornstarch in a small bowl to make a slurry.

2. In saucepan, bring juice to a hard boil (should be bubbling rapidly in the middle and the sides, not just the sides).

3. Add cornstarch slurry to juice, a little at a time while whisking vigorously. You want to make sure that there are no cornstarch lumps. You may not use all the cornstarch mixture but you want the syrup to be very thick, as it will thin out again once the sugar is added.

4. Add sugar and salt, stir until dissolved.

5. Add cherries and boil briefly. Mixture should continue to thicken. If you're worried that the cherries will become too soft, you can skip this step and just pour the finished syrup mixture over the cherries.

6. Add almond extract and lemon juice.

7. Cool mixture to room temperature. If filling is still hot, the bottom crust will become soggy. Add butter right before putting filling in pie tin.

8. Here is the recipe for the crust, as promised: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Butter-Flaky-Pie-Crust/Detail.aspx?prop31=1 I put a nice egg wash on mine (just a beaten egg, nothing fancy) for shine and to help it brown. I also sprinkled some swedish sugar on top for crunch.

9. Bake at 425F until crust is nicely browned and filling bubbles slightly in middle - approximately 35-40 minutes but it really depends on your oven. Rotate halfway through cooking.

Pies and Stuff

This week I made a cherry pie for one of my sister's co-workers. Excuse the weird yellowy pic above; the lighting in my place sucks at night. I'll post the recipe tomorrow, I promise. I'm way too tired tonight.

In other news....

I made the tray of pastries above for my practical exam today. Overall, it went well but I did get some points taken off for my chocolate croissants (see how they are unrolling a little? that means they're probably underproofed).

I also found this rock, below, in the school parking lot. Am I crazy or does it not look a little like a piece of chocolate cream pie (I put another rock under it as as "plate" cuz I'm goofy like that)? Maybe I just have pie on the brain :)

Banana "Ice Cream" Results

So, I tried the one ingredient (banana) "ice cream" from the previous post. The results are in and......it's seriously delicious, creamy and very, very easy. You do need a food processor, which we only recently acquired in my household. This is great, though, because we ALWAYS have bananas and soon it will be too hot to bake banana bread (yes, we live on the second floor with no ac!)

www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/stay-cool/how-to-make-creamy-ice-cream-with-just-one-ingredient-093414



I would never have guessed that this was simply frozen bananas that had been processed. It has a strong banana flavor but has the texture of a soft serve ice cream. I sprinkled some cinnamon over the top but am definitely going to try lots of add-ins. I'm thinking cocoa powder, nuts, chocolate chips, other fruit - there are so many options!

Eton Mess

Most people I know are not big meringue fans. Sure, they'll eat it on Lemon Meringue Pie but that's really about it. And, to tell the truth, I'm no exception. The dry texture and pure sweetness of a meringue "cookie" is too much. However, it's the intense sweetness and crunchy texture that makes meringue such a great component in this dessert!

Eton Mess is named after a posh British school where it was invented. It consists of strawberries, cream, and meringue pieces. Mine isn't traditional because it is A) not mixed into a "mess" for aesthetic purposes and B) uses chocolate meringue bits instead of the traditional plain vanilla. The best part is that it takes very little time to prepare and all of the components can be made in advance and assembled at the last minute (to keep the meringue pieces crunchy)

There are lots of recipes around the interwebs for both meringue cookies and Eton Mess. Here are just a couple links:

http://www.allrecipes.com/HowTo/Perfect-Meringues/Detail.aspx

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/eton-mess-recipe/index.html

Playing with Fire (aka Creme Brulee)!

We made creme brulee the other day - which means I got to play with the blowtorch! Yay! It definitely takes some practice in order to torch it just enough and not burn the sugar.

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

I've really been wanting to make homemade ice cream this summer. Unfortunately, my ice cream maker is MIA. I can't figure out what the heck happened to it. In the meantime, I've borrowed my sister's machine so I can experiment while the weather is still warm (a pretty short time period in Minnesota).


I was looking around the Tastespotting website for some delicious ice cream recipes and stumbled upon one from this blog: http://www.cravingchronicles.com/. The recipe itself is adapted from David Lebovitz's ( http://www.davidlebovitz.com/) Then I modified it just a little bit more! I used regular cocoa powder because I didn't have dutch process and added chocolate syrup for extra chocolatey goodness. I also added some chocolate chips because you can never have too much chocolate and I wanted the chocolate and peanut butter flavors to be balanced. The result has a great creamy texture and is definitely as good (if not better) than any store brand.


Recipe:

2 cups half and half

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup Hershey's syrup

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (I used Jif) for mixture plus approx 1/4 cup for pb patties

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine first four ingredients and heat in a medium saucepan, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Once it begins to boil, remove from heat and stir in peanut butter until smooth. Refrigerate mixture until completely cooled. Meanwhile, make patties of peanut butter to add to ice cream. Cover a plate with plastic wrap, put small dabs of peanut butter on the plate and freeze. Make ice cream in machine according to directions. Remove the ice cream from the freezing bowl and add chocolate chips and frozen peanut butter patties. If ice cream is not firm enough, freeze for a couple hours before eating.

What's for Dessert?

Unfortunately, I'm not making too many desserts lately. It's sad because I enjoy baking and other desserts but, as I mentioned, we're trying to eat better around these parts. The pic above is the berry crisp I made from black raspberries, rhubarb and strawberries. The crisp topping is mostly oats with a little butter, sugar, and flour. Bake at 350 until the top is browned and the fruit is bubbling.

The above is a lazy way to assemble a crepe, I will admit. Melanie had just made a fresh batch and I didn't feel like rolling them up neatly.

This last one really isn't a healthy dessert. I mean, I guess it has oats and nuts in it. Does that count? I took the standard Tollhouse cookie bar recipe and made some substitutions. I used a 1/4 cup of oats to replace some of the flour. I also had three half bags of chips to use up (butterscotch, peanut butter, mini-chocolate chips. Am I the only one who ends up with these pathetic half or quarter bags of random chips?) and used half almonds/half walnuts instead of the pecans listed. Oh yeah - I also threw in half a bar of semisweet chocolate (a baking bar size, chopped). The end result was very good but I think the butterscotch chips made them a little sweeter than I would have liked.

Apple Pecan Quick Bread

I had some apples that were getting a little soft to eat so I made this bread (more like a coffee cake) to use them up. I baked a double batch in a shallow pyrex baking pan. I find that quick breads cooked in a loaf pan are almost always undercooked on the inside and too dry on the outside. For this bread, I substituted half the apples for cranberries as the recipe suggests. I also added about two teaspoons of cinnamon, a teaspoon of vanilla, and a dash of nutmeg to the batter. Finally, I sprinkled cinnamon and sugar over the top to create a crunchy crust when baked. It was delicious - very moist and the cranberries' tartness offsets the sweetness.

Here is the link to the recipe below. I got it off Epicurious but it is orginally from The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/APPLE-PECAN-QUICK-BREAD-102833

Cherry Clafouti

It's been a million years since my last post. I had a terrible cold for a couple weeks and that side-tracked me completely.

Anyway, here is a picture of the cherry clafouti that I made last week. I had never made one before and thought it was going to be more cakey. It is actually more of a french toast/custard type dessert. It was delicious, but I wish I had toasted the nuts more.

Easy Tart

Let's talk about easy little tarts. This one can be a little saucy, too ;)

I'm talking about pastries, not those mean girls in high school. Here is one I made from some frozen puff pastry, sweetened cream cheese, and apples carmelized in a skillet with a little butter and brown sugar. Delicious! But, if you like your desserts really sweet then why not top it off with a little caramel sauce? Or maybe some maple syrup, if you are fond of mapley things.....

Crepes with Orange Zest

For Saturday morning brunch, I felt the need for something that would seem like a luxurious treat but would actually be really simple to make. The answer is crepes! Some people would say these are more a dessert than a breakfast food but I say they are as much of a real food as doughnut, right? If you insist on having something more substantial with your crepes then make a savory crepe and fill with eggs or cheese or even some sausage or bacon. Crepes are extremely versatile!

A couple of notes on crepes:

• It is best to let the batter rest in the fridge for atleast 30 minutes before cooking the crepes. In fact, you can make the batter up to two days ahead of time, so it's perfect for a brunch gathering.


• Yes, it helps to have a little omelet or crepe pan. These are cheap, though, and worth it.


• Please don't be intimidated by crepes! If you've ever made pancakes then you can make these.

Anywho, I used the sweet crepe recipe from "Joy of Cooking" and just added some orange zest to the batter (about a tablespoon). I made a raspberry sauce using fresh raspberries, a couple tablespoons of powdered sugar, 3 teaspoons of water, another tablespoon of orange zest, and two tablespoons of Harry & David's Orgegold Peach jam. I just heated it (not to boiling), mashing up the berries with spoon and stirring together. We also spread some of the Kumbe African chocolate sauce on the crepes (I got it at the St. Paul Farmer's Market last summer, but you can buy it online here: http://www.localharvest.org/store/item.jsp?id=1320)