Rhubarb again, you might say! Yes, this time with its favorite buddy – strawberry and all enveloped in a tasty batter with scrumptious topping of streusel and almond slices.
You will love this spring/summery dessert and especially if you are baking for a large crowd. In no time you’ll have a large baking sheet of super tasty, fruity goodness.
This is me, using a large rhubarb leaf from my garden as a fan. 😀
Ingredients:
• 450 g (200 + 250) or 7 oz + 8.8 oz flour
• 400 g (150 + 250) or 5 oz + 8.8 sugar
• 2 packs (1 + 1) vanilla sugar (or 2 tsp [1+1]vanilla extract)
• 400 g (150 + 250)or 5 oz + 8.8 butter • 1 pinch of salt
• 500 g (1.1 lb)rhubarb
• 800 g (1.7 lb)strawberries
• 4 large eggs
• 75 g (2.6 oz) corn starch
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 75 g (2.6 oz) sliced almonds Prepare streusel: For the streusel combine qty of ingredients marked bold in the ingredient list – flour, sugar, vanilla, salt and cut in butter with a pastry blender or hand until it resembles coarse crumb. Cover and place in the fridge.
Cake:
1. Wash rhubarb, pat dry and cut into 1.5 cm or ½ inch pieces. Wash strawberries and split them into halves if small and into quarters if bigger.
2. For the batter combine the remaining butter (or half qty of butter, half cream cheese), remaining sugar and vanilla. Mix at high speed until creamy. Add one by one egg making sure they are well mixed into batter.
3. Combine remaining flour, corn starch and baking powder and stir well. Lower the speed and add the flour mixture.
4. Spread the batter onto a large baking pan covered with parchment paper. I’ve used 13 X 17 inches which is about 33 X 43 cm.
5. Place rhubarb and strawberries on the top of the batter. Sprinkle with sugar (if desired). Now spread streusel over it and finally almond slices.
6. Bake at 200 C or 395 F 30-35 minutes. Remove from the oven, let it cool and serve. You may want to sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.
ENJOY!
I wanted to make this Pavlova since I discovered it last year on a French website. This is the second item to cross off my 2013 (baking) To Do List . The first item was Bourke Street Bakery croissants, which were a-m-a-z-i-n-g, but I still didn’t find time to post about them (that’s still coming).
The original recipe actually calls for raspberries and dark chocolate. I changed the quantity of some ingredients and also used what I had in the house, which were some sweet Michigan strawberries and milk chocolate. I didn’t regret it because it was a huge hit with my family, so I am perfectly happy. 🙂 This is such a great summer dessert! I hope you will be making it soon. Happy SUMMER!
450 ml (about 2 cups) heavy cream whipped thick (add sugar after your own taste)
450 g (1 lb) strawberries (raspberries or blackberries)
1. Draw 3 rectangles of 10 X 30 cm (4 X 12 inches) on sheets of parchment paper and place on two baking sheets. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add half of sugar while beating . The mixture should be very firm and look shine.
2. Using a spoon or spatula, gently fold in the remaining sugar, cornstarch and grated chocolate.
3. Place the prepared meringue into a piping bag fitted with a 1 cm star tip. Fill the rectangles drawn by drawing lines with the meringue. Bake in preheated oven at 100° C (about 200 F) for 1 hour. Without opening the door, turn off the oven and leave the meringues cool inside. Then take off from the paper.
4. To make the filling, melt the chocolate and spread it over two meringues. Allow to harden.
5. Place one of two chocolate meringues on a plate and cover with about 1/3 of the whipped cream and strawberries. Gently place the second meringue chocolate on top and cover with half the cream and the remaining strawberries.
6. Finally, place the last meringue on top and decorate with the remaining cream and strawberries. Drizzle melted chocolate over the top and serve.
Last weekend we celebrated our daughter’s 16th Birthday! It was the first sunny and really warm weekend this year, so in addition to going out for lunch and having a piece of birthday cake at home, we also spent some time in the park with our pups, enjoying the warmth and noticing the first signs of spring.
A 16th birthday cake had to be (almost) as special and as pretty as our daughter! She wanted to have something with strawberries and chocolate, and this is what mom came up with: A strawberry jelly roll, cut into slices and used to cover the bottom and sides of a cake form; filled with cream cheese, whipped cream and blended fresh strawberries filling.
Prepare a large baking sheet and cover it with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 395 F or 200 C.
Add 6 eggs and an egg white into the mixer bowl. Mix at high speed until eggs start foaming. Slowly add sugar and vanilla and mix for another 2-3 minutes.
Combine cake flour and baking powder, mix well and slowly start adding to the eggs and sugar, mixing slowly at the lowest setting.
Pour the batter into the baking sheet and bake until edges start getting lightly brown (about 15 minutes). Take a large kitchen towel, place it under the whole cake and roll it up lengthwise (together with the parchment paper)to form a roll. Keep it inside of the kitchen towel until completely cooled down.
Now lightly heat strawberry jam, unroll the cake and remove the parchment paper. Spread the jam in an even, thin layer all over the cake. Roll the cake back into a firm roll, wrap again in kitchen towel and leave it in the fridge until needed again.
Filling:
Wash and quarter strawberries, place them in a blender and puree them.
Melt the chocolate and spread in a very thin layer over a bottom of a flat surface (such as a cookie sheet or a tray that can fit into freezer)
Whip the heavy cream, add sugar. Reserve about 1/4 of it for decoration.
Mix the cream cheese, powder sugar and vanilla until smooth.
In a sauce pan mix two envelopes of plain gelatin with 6 TBSP of water until smooth and leave it to rest for about 10 minutes.
Remove the chocolate from the freezer. Holding  a metal spatula or a knife under 45 degree angle, start pushing the chocolate to form shavings, later to be used for the filling and decoration. Place all the shavings in the fridge.
At this point take the jelly roll out of the fridge and slice it into 1/2 inch thick slices. Line your cake spring pan with plastic wrap. Lay the jelly roll slices all around the wall and on the bottom of the pan. Now it’s time to finish the filling:
Place the sauce pan with gelatin on the stove and on a low heat and melt the gelatin. Do not let it boil!
Pour the gelatin into cream cheese and stir in thoroughly, add whipped cream and stir until well combined.
Pour half of the mixture into a second bowl, add chocolate shavings and spread it all on the cake. This filling will be firm.
Add strawberry puree into the remaining cream cheese-whipped cream mixture and pour it over the first filling. The second filling will be kind of liquidy, but don’t worry it will solidify because of the gelatin. Now cover the cake with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge at least for 4 hours or best over night.
When you’re ready to serve the cake, remove it from the spring cake pan and place it on a serving plate. Pull all the plastic wrap from underneath the cake, decorate with fresh strawberries, whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
Last Saturday I went to the Farmer’s Market again and bought some great Michigan strawberries and beautiful, crisp rhubarb. The strawberries were so super sweet and delicious that we couldn’t resist and ate them right away just plain. There was one container left, so I wasn’t sure what to use them for. The idea came when I was going through my kitchen cupboards and eyed a small bag of semolina that I had sitting there since the time I made my Raspberry Dream Cake. I decided to make the semolina pudding and then use the strawberries and rhubarb to make the sauce. Oh, I have to tell you it came out soooo delicious, it is really hard to describe…
SEMOLINA PUDDING WITH STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB SAUCEÂ Â Printable recipe
Serves 8
For the pudding:
80 g (2.7 oz) semolina wheat flour
500 ml (2 cups) milk
100 g (1/4 cup) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ lemon – zest only
Also needed:Â a muffin pan or a bundtlette pan
Prepare your pan by rinsing it with the cold water or placing it the freezer for a few minutes.
Bring the milk to a boil; add sugar, vanilla extract and lemon zest. Let it simmer for a few minutes until all sugar has dissolved. Slowly add semolina to the milk, whisking the whole time. You will notice an increase in volume (as semolina expands). Mix until all liquid disappears and large bubbles start showing.
Pour the pudding into a prepared pan. This quantity will yield about 8 individual portions. Let it cool slightly, cover with plastic and refrigerate.
For the strawberry-rhubarb sauce:
300 g (10 oz) strawberries (washed and quartered)
200 g (6.7 oz) rhubarb (washed and cut into ½ inch pieces)
100 g (1/4 cup) sugar
2 tablespoons of honey
1 pack of vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract)
a pinch of ground cloves
1 tablespoon corn starch
3 tablespoons water
Place the strawberries, rhubarb, sugar and honey in a cooking pot. Add vanilla and a pinch of cloves. Mix occasionally and let it simmer for about 15 minutes at a low temperature. Mix corn starch with water until smooth and add it to the fruit mixture to thicken.
This Saturday my daughter and I made a trip to our local Farmers’ Market, which is a quite busy place this time of the year. For a while now that has been our mother-daughter special time. It’s almost our tradition to stop by the Thai stand at the entrance and get a spring roll. After eating those crispy, delicious wraps, we were so ready to browse and shop. The farmers’ stands had most beautiful, crisp looking asparagus that was just calling my name (bought 2 pounds for 4 $). We also bought some farm fresh eggs, strawberries and rhubarb. I planned to make my usual strawberry-rhubarb cake with egg whites frosting, but then for some reason galette came to my mind and I decided to make a strawberry-rhubarb galette instead. This recipe was adapted from marthastewart.com plum galette. Strawberry-rhubarb is a match made in heaven! You will love every bite of it!
Strawberry-Rhubarb Galette                                 Printable recipe
Crust:
2 1/2 cups (320 g) all-purpose flour
1Â teaspoon salt
1 cup (226Â g) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2Â cup (118 ml) Â ice water
Filling:
1Â tablespoon all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1/2Â cup (75 g) plain bread crumbs
2Â tablespoons brown sugar
1 pack vanilla sugar
1Â tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/2Â pounds (700 g) strawberries and rhubarb
3Â tablespoons granulated sugar
2 – 3 tablespoons of smooth strawberry jam
Egg wash:
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
Preparation:
Combine flour and salt. Add cold butter and work it into flour until large crumbs form, then start adding water. You can do all this in the food processor, but I just prefer doing it by hand. The dough will be smooth. If sticky, add a bit more flour. Form a disc, wrap in plastic and leave it in the fridge to rest for an hour.
For the filling wash and quarter strawberries, wash rhubarb and cut into ½ inch (1.3 cm) pieces. Set aside. Combine flour, bread crumbs, corn starch, brown sugar and vanilla.
Roll out the dough to an 18 X 16 inch (46 X 41 cm) rectangle. Transfer it to the parchment lined large baking sheet. Spread the bread crumb mixture in the middle of the dough leaving 2-3 inches ( 5-8 cm) border. Arrange the fruit on the top of the mixture and sprinkle with 3 tbsp of sugar.
Fold the both longer sides inward and then do the same with the shorter sides (as to form a package). Brush the folded sides with the egg wash. Bake at 400 F (200 C) until crust starts getting a nice golden-brown color.
Remove from the oven and let it cool down. Heat the strawberry jam. If it has pieces of strawberry and seed, first strain it through a fine mesh, then brush over the fruit in the middle of the galette.
I woke up today to a rainy morning and clouds, but a few hours later all that turned to a beautiful, sunny day. Seeing the sun and first spring flowers blooming out there I was so inspired to bake something light and springy. This Strawberry Yogurt Cake came right to my mind. These kind of yogurt and cream based cakes are often made in Germany. If any cake can be called light, then this is it (despite the cream 🙂 ). There is no butter and I excluded egg yolks! There is plenty of yogurt which makes it very refreshing and then strawberries to make the whole experience complete. It’s almost as if a smoothie was transformed into a cake. I LOVE IT, I hope you will too!
Spring form cake pan 9 in (23 cm) in diameter; Parchment paper round (same diameter as the pan)
For the filling:
1 ¼ cup (300 ml) heavy cream
¼ cup (50 g)sugar
1 vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
2 cups (500 ml) plain yogurt (2%)
½ cup (100 g) sugar
½ tsp lemon zest
1 lb (450 g) fresh strawberries + 4-5 for decoration
 2 envelopes of plain gelatin
4 tbsp water
Cake preparation:
Add smidgen of salt into egg whites and beat them until fluffy, add sugar and beat few minutes more. Combine flour and baking powder, fold into egg white mixture by hand.
Preheat oven to 365 F (185 C). Line the spring form with parchment paper and pour the cake batter in. Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Cool completely. Remove the parchment paper from the bottom of the cake and return the cake to the form.
Cake filling:
For the filling whip the cream until dense, add sugar and whip for one more minute. Cover and refrigerate.
In another bowl add yogurt, lemon zest and sugar and mix by hand until smooth. Set aside.
Put 4 tbsp cold water in a small cooking pot, empty contents of 2 gelatin envelops into it, mix it so there is no crumbs. Set aside for about 5 minutes.
Wash strawberries, remove stems, put into blender and blend until liquid. Add strawberries into yogurt mixture.
Place the cooking pot with gelatin on the stove and lightly heat it, only until dissolved, do not let it boil! Add to it about ½ cup yogurt mixture and mix well. Now pour the gelatin mixture into remaining yogurt mixture, add whipped cream and again mix by hand until it all blends and looks like a strawberry smoothie.
Pour the filling into the spring form and on the top of the cake. Filling will be liquid and that is ok.
Refrigerate for 3 hours minimum or best over night. After that filling will become dense (like jello).
Remove spring form ring, decorate the cake with whipped cream and strawberries.
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