Rhubarb Custard Crumble Tart

When I first made it the the UK all those years ago, my 'Auntie' and 'Uncle' in Chester very kindly put me up for two years.  I know!  Can you imagine putting someone up in your home for two whole years!  Amazing people and technically speaking not my true Auntie and Uncle as Auntie Linda and Mum were friends since childhood.  When my Grandparents decided to pick up sticks and move their young family from London to Tasmania Auntie Linda came out with them for two years before returning back to the UK where she then met my Uncle and started a family of their own.  Anyhoo, all those years later I turned up on their doorstep and the rest is pretty much history. 

Auntie Linda, Mum and my second cousin Michele

Now the reason I started telling this story is because it was this period in my life that introduced me to rhubarb - before then it was very definitely relegated to the 'I Don't Like' file.  There used to be a lovely old couple who had a house a few doors along from us when I was little and they had the most amazing veggie patch in their backyard.  I remember being all of 5 years old and Flossie (that would be one half of the lovely old couple) used to force feed me and my brother raw rhubarb straight from the garden, hence it being added to the 'I Don't Like' file.  Anyway, Auntie Linda and Uncle David also had an amazing garden in which they also grew rhubarb.  One night after work Auntie Linda produced the most amazing Rhubarb Crumble for dessert and since then I was hooked.

Rhubarb Custard Crumble Tart
3 egg yolks
135g caster sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 tbsp cornflour
300ml double cream
2 vanilla pods, split lengthways, seeds scraped and reserved
500g rhubarb, cut into 4cm lengths
Knob of butter
For the Shortcrust Pastry
280g plain flour, plus extra to dust
60g custard powder
200g chilled butter, cubed
4 tbsp caster sugar
2 large free-range egg yolks
For the crumble topping
170g plain flour
110g chilled butter, cubed
55g light muscovado sugar

For the pastry, put the flour in a blender with the custard powder and a good pinch of salt. Whizz briefly, then add the butter. Pulse until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Transfer to a big bowl and stir in the sugar. Add the egg yolks and 3-4 tbsp ice-cold water. Quickly mix together, then shape into a flat disc, wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan180°C/ gas 6 and pop a baking sheet inside to heat up. For the crumble, put the flour and a pinch of salt in a bowl, add the butter and rub together with your fingers until the mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, then scatter over a shallow baking tray. Set aside.

Roll out the pastry on a floured work surface and use to line a 21cm, loose-bottomed, fluted tart tin that’s 3.5cm deep. Trim any excess pastry and prick the base all over with a fork. Line with baking paper and fill with baking beans or rice. Bake for 10 minutes on the hot baking sheet. Remove the paper and beans/rice, and bake for 5 minutes more until the pastry is crisp. Remove from the oven and set aside. Leave the oven on.

Make the custard filling. Mix the eggs and egg yolks, 60g of the caster sugar, orange zest and cornflour together in a bowl. Put the cream, 1 split vanilla pod and seeds in a pan over a medium heat and bring almost to the boil. Slowly strain the hot cream over the egg mixture, stirring. Pour back into the cleaned pan and return to the hob. Heat gently, stirring, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour into a jug, then cover the surface with cling film to stop a skin forming. Cool and chill.

Place the rhubarb in a bowl, stir in the remaining 75g caster sugar and the seeds from the remaining vanilla pod, scatter over a shallow baking tray, dot with butter, drizzle with 1 tbsp water and add the vanilla pod. Roast for 15 minutes. Put a colander over a bowl, then pour the rhubarb into the colander, discarding the vanilla pod. Reserve the juices and allow the rhubarb to cool a little.

Pour the custard into the pastry case, then top with the rhubarb, poking it under the custard a little. Bake on the baking sheet for 12-15 minutes until the custard is just set. Put the crumble topping in the oven at the same time, shaking its tray occasionally, cooking for the same amount of time until crunchy and golden. Remove both from the oven. Carefully remove the tart from the tin. Scatter with the crumble and some of the reserved rhubarb juice. Serve warm or at room temperature.
 

 
Serves 6-8
Delicious Website
 

This is one of those recipes that is best made at the weekend, wish I had read through the recipe fully to understand that for myself before I started on Wednesday night!  The only thing I would maybe change was the custard, Hubby said it tasted quite eggy whereas I thought the orange overpowered the flavour of the vanilla ... and the texture was maybe a bit eggy.  Other than that its pretty yummy and would make a great finish to a family barbecue.

 

Rhubarb and Vanilla Mincemeat

I know I'm leaving it a bit late to finally be posting this recipe but trust me when I say its worth waiting for. This is another Nigella recipe that I came across last year and it completely opened the door to the world of Mince Pie's for me. Before then mince meat was booze sodden mixed peel with some suet mixed in for good measure. Bless that Nigella!

Rhubarb and Vanilla Mincemeat
1kg rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 5mm slices
300g soft dark brown sugar
2 vanilla pods
2 tsp ground mixed spice
225g raisins
225g sultanas
225g currants
2 tbsp brandy (I replace this with either orange juice or grand marnier)

Put the sliced rhubarb with the sugar into a large pan. Cut the vanilla pod in halves length ways and scrape out the seeds, then cut each half into pieces, adding seeds and pod slices to the pan. Add the mixed spice and cook for about 5 mins.

Add the dried fruits and simmer the pan for about 30 mins. Stir in the brandy and take off the heat. When it's cool enough to handle, bottle in jars.

Makes 1.25 litres
From Nigella's Christmas Cook Book

This year I made the mincemeat when the Rhubarb was in plentiful supply and kept it in a dark cupboard until now. Last weekend I used some of it to make Crumble Topped Mince Pies which didn't last long at all.

Crumble Topped Mince Pies
1 quantity shortcrust pastry
200g mincemeat
25g ground almonds
25g flaked almonds (I didn't have any so I just left them out)
Pinch of ground cinnamon
25g soft light brown sugar

Turn the oven to 180C/fan 160C. On a lightly floured work surface, roll the pastry out to a 2-3mm thickness. Using a 9-10cm flutted cutter, stamp out discs from the pastry. Re-roll any trimmings and stamp out more discs until the pastry is used up. Line two 8 hole muffin tins with the pastry discs, then fill each pastry shell with 1 heaped tsp mincemeat and spread out to smooth.

Combine the ground and flaked almonds, cinnamon, brown sugar and the melted butter in a small bowl, then sprinkle a little over the top of each mince pie. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 20 mins, until the pastry is cooked and golden brown. Cool in the tins for 5 mins.

Serve with brandy butter or creme friache.

* To make ahead, freeze , uncooked, in trays for up to 1 month. Defrost overnight and bake as above.

Makes approx 16
Easy Cook Mag - Christmas 2009

Crunchy Rhubarb Oat Crumble

On my way home from work today I passed a Bumble Bee.  That would be my first Bumble Bee for the year and about two minutes after the first one passed me by I meet up with his friend just down the road.  Two Bumble sightings in one afternoon!  It always manages to produce a silly grin on my face.  They are just so cute!  They defy gravity - how does something so big and fluffy manage to stay in the air?  And the way they buzz along, bumbling from one flower to the next, they remind me of Phoebe from 'Friends' with her running style!  They don't care what they look like, they are in a world of their own humming along to themselves as they go, floating up and down, having fun in a laid back Bumble Bee style.  Love them!  It is clear to see that the novelty factor of Bumble Bee's hasn't worn off for me at all.  We don't get them back home and after nearly 8 years in the UK I still look forward to seeing them appear each year.

So it should come as no surprise that this is my favourite jug of all time.  I have a bit of a soft spot for collecting jugs, I manage to rein myself in most times, but this jug was destined to come and live with me!  Is it going to far to admit that this is called my 'Happy Jug'?  I feel I have admitted too much now ...

It seemed a logical therefore, that tonight's dinner should come with dessert and that dessert should be Rhubarb Crumble.  Bumble Bee's, my Happy Jug and rhubarb all share a connection (in my mind at least!) with summer.  I'm going to stop rambling now (this post is become like the flight path of a bumble bee - all over the place) and just go to the recipe!

Crunchy Rhubarb Oat Crumble
125g plain flour
50g softened butter
50g rolled oats
50g demerara sugar
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
450g fresh rhubarb
50g caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180C.  Place the flour in a large bowl and cut the butter into cubes.  Add to the flour and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs, or blend for a few seconds in a food processor.

Stir in the rolled oats, demerara sugar, sesame seeds and cinnamon.  Mix well and reserve.

Prepare the rhubarb by removing the thick ends of the stalks and cut diagonally into 2.5cm chunks.  Wash thoroughly and pat dry with a clean tea towel.  Place the rhubarb in a 1.1 litre pie dish.

Sprinkle the caster sugar over the rhubarb and top with the reserved crumble so that all the fruit is well covered and press down firmly.  If liked, sprinkle the top with a little extra caster sugar.

Place on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 40 - 50 mins, or until the fruit is soft and the topping is golden brown.  Sprinkle the pudding with some more caster sugar (this is a step too far for me - how much sugar can one crumble take!) and serve hot with custard (Hubby's preferred choice) or cream.

Serves 6
I can't remember the name of the book that this recipe comes from, but its a Scottish recipe book that I picked up at the visitor center in Glencoe a few years ago.  (Not very helpful to you I'm sure, but I know precisely which book it is!)

Peach Crumble Cake - CBC 5

Another beautiful day!  There are blue skies all around, the neighbours children are out playing in the street, the birds are even singing.  Summer can't be far away now.  All of this makes me crave summer fruits and BBQ's and ice cream cones ... and a white sandy beach with the waves crashing in would be quite nice too while I'm dreaming on!  This cake has always seemed like summer on a plate to me, and the best part is that I don't actually have to wait for peaches to be in season to make it.  Or maybe the best part is that, as far as cakes go, I can eat a slice of this without feeling any guilt whatsoever. 

Peach Crumble Cake
Low fat cooking spray
275g SR flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
Salt
125g low fat polyunsaturated marg (guilt free has its concessions!)
125g soft light brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
200g low fat plain yogurt (I used Total 0%)
410g can peach slices in juice, drained

Preheat the oven to 160C fan.  Spray a 20cm spring-form cake tin with low fat cooking spray and line it with baking parchment.

Sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a mixing bowl.  Rub in the margarine until the mixture is crumbly, then stir in the sugar.  Weigh out 80g of the mixture into a small bowl for the topping and set this aside.

Mix the eggs, vanilla extract and yogurt into the remaining flour mixture to form a smooth batter, then pour into the prepared cake tin.

Pat the peaches dry on kitchen paper, then arrange on top of the cake.

Scatter with the reserved crumb mixture, then bake the cake in the oven for 45-50 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.  The cake can be stored for 2-3 days.

Serves 12
Adapted from WW Cook Smart Baking

I couldn't help but take this last photo - I walked back into the kitchen to find Hubby's empty plate sat in front of the cake ... he had already snuck an extra slice when I wasn't looking!  Do you think he likes it?

Blueberry Buckle

The blueberries in this cake were originally intended for the muffins that Clair made a little while ago over at Purely Food. We're a bit muffin-ed out at the moment though, something a little different is required. After surfing around on the net at lunch time today I came across a recipe for Blueberry Buckle at the Joy Of Cooking, with a name like that I just had to try it. After some research I think 'Buckle' is an old term for a single layer fruit cake. If anybody knows for sure though I'd love to hear from you.

Blueberry Buckle

Crumble Topping

50g plain flour

50g light brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

55g cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Cake Batter

130g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

55g unsalted butter, at room temp

100g vanilla caster sugar

1 large egg, at room temp

1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

80ml milk

1 punnet fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 170C. Butter or spray a 20x20cm (8x8") square pan or a 20cm (8") round cake pan.

For crumble topping; Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Set aside (I popped this in the fridge to ensure it stayed nice and cold while the rest of the cake was being made).

For the cake; Cream the butter then add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add the flour mixture, alternately with the milk, and beat only until combined. Spread the batter onto the bottom of the prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula.

Evenly arrange the blueberries on top of the cake batter and then sprinkle with the crumble topping.

Bake for about 40-50 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly.

Serve warm or at room temp.

Serves 9

Adapted from The Joy Of Baking

We had this for dessert tonight with a scoop of ice cream. The blueberries can be replaced with any kind of seasonal fruit, think we will try this with some blackberries soon. The cake is also supposed to be really nice cold and served with a cuppa.

Summer Fruit Crumble

Summer is putting up one last fight here, lovely blue skies and almost warmish days. Hurrah ;0)

I'd like to think that tonight's dessert is my way of lending support to summer's last stand, but in all honesty I've got to the point where there is loads of fruit in the fridge and fruit bowl that need to be used up. I was going to make muffins, but couldn't decide which kind, could have made a raspberry and white chocolate blondie recipe that I came across the other day but I don't have all the ingredients ... hmmm ... time to get inventive!

Summer Fruit Crumble

1 mango, remove stone, peeled and flesh cubed

2 peaches, remove stones, sliced

A handful of fresh raspberries

A handful of fresh blueberries

25g vanilla sugar

Crumble

150g plain flour

75g butter, chilled and cubed

75g demerara sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Add fruit to a pie dish or ramekins and sprinkle over caster sugar.

Make the crumble; place the flour in a large bowl, add the butter and using your fingertips, rub it in until the mixture resembles very course breadcrumbs. (Don't rub in too much or the crumble will not be crunchy). Add the demerara sugar and mix to combine.

Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the fruit and bake for 15 mins for small crumbles or 30-45 mins for a large one until cooked and golden.

Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Serves 4-6

Adapted from Rachel Allen's 'Bake'

My verdict on this is scrumy - especially the crumble part. Next time I make it though I think I'll leave the mango out and up the amount of raspberries if we have them kicking about.

Peach and Raspberry Buckle

Summer made a glorious appearance today - quite handy of it to do so too seeing as I had a day off work ;0)

After the success of last year's Blueberry Buckle recipe (I still love the name 'buckle'!) I had been hoarding this recipe for just the right moment.  With a few tweaks, no recipe is safe from my continual interference,  I decided today was just the moment I had been waiting for and set about baking when I returned from enjoying the sunshine.  The tweaks refer mainly to that fact that I substitute vanilla for the cinnamon in the original recipe because I think of cinnamon more as a winter spice and it seems to get its way into everything, and also swapping apricots for peaches, this change was for no other reason than I had peaches handy and they needed using.

Peach and Raspberry Buckle
175g self-raising flour
200g softened butter
2 tbsp demerara sugar
Seeds from 1 vanilla pod
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 small peaches , stoned and sliced
200g raspberries , fresh or frozen

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line the base of a 23cm square tin (I don't have a tin that size and opted for my pyrex pan which is 23cm x 19cm). For the crumble mix, put 2 tbsp flour and 25g of the butter with the demerara sugar and vanilla seeds in a bowl. Rub between your fingers until it resembles damp breadcrumbs.

Tip the remaining flour and butter and the caster sugar, eggs and vanilla in a bowl, then beat until well combined. Lightly fold in half the apricots and raspberries, then spread over the prepared tin.

Scatter over the remaining fruit, then sprinkle with the crumble mix. Bake for 45-50 mins until light golden, then cool for 10 mins and remove from the tin. Cut into squares and serve warm with cream or ice cream for dessert, or cold for tea.

Serves 8
Good Food Website (links to the original recipe)

Hubby and I treated ourselves to a small slice for dessert tonight, with a small drizzling of cream.  Yum!

Blackberry and Apple Crumble Top Muffins with White Chocolate

The plan was to make some Blackberry and White Chocolate muffins when I got in from work tonight, but I discovered that I didn't have any buttermilk. Then I thought I'd make a nice Apple and Blackberry Crumble for dessert, not enough apples. Then I thought 'why not combine the two' and taadaa - Blackberry and Apple Crumble Top Muffins with White Chocolate was born.

The basic Muffin recipe came from the Goddess's Kitchen Blog, the crumble topping came from the '500 Cupcakes and Muffins' cookbook by Fergal Connolly and a few tweaks came from my favourite recipe website. The mixture made slightly more than I expected but there are no complaints on that score. They turned out really moist and light, so delish with a cuppa after dinner (or for anytime!)

Blackberry and Apple Topped Muffins with White Chocolate

220g blackberries
3 apples
2 duck eggs
250ml milk
120ml vegetable oil
200g vanilla caster sugar
375g plain flour (sifted)
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (see note below)

100g white chocolate, chopped

Crumble Topping

50g unsalted butter, melted

4 tbsp plain flour

3 tbsp light brown sugar

4 tbsp porridge oats

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Place the eggs, oil, sugar and milk in a large mixing bowl and beat together.

Sift flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into small pieces. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir. Do not over mix. Gently stir the apples, blackberries and white chocolate into the mixture with the last few strokes, the mixture should still be lumpy.

Fill a muffin tray with paper muffin cases, and then fill each case to about two thirds full with the muffin mixture.

To make the crumble; stir all crumble ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the mixture and bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes.

Makes 22

Adapted from a lot of different recipes!

Chief taste tester (that would be Hubby) suggests more chocolate should be added next time, and I agree, the chunks of chocolate did seem to be few and far between in the muffin I sampled too. Also, the original recipe for the muffins said to put ground cinnamon in, I cut it back from the full teaspoon to just a half and then worried that I maybe shouldn't have added any at all with the white chocolate being an added touch, but I couldn't taste any at all in the finished muffin. Next time I'll leave it out but might put some vanilla extract in its place.