Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp

Strawberry-rhubarb is a classic American dessert combination. Both fruits are signs that spring is finally warming into summer, and they go so well together that the less common rhubarb is rarely found without it's flavor soul mate, strawberry. The tart, crunchy rhubarb is perfectly offset by the sweet, soft strawberries, and they bake up into a beautiful, rich red filling for tarts, pies, crumbles, crisps, or even on their own as a tasty sauce to serve over scones, cakes, or ice cream.

This recipe is an adaptation of several different versions, and represents my preferences for a baked fruit dessert: fairly cohesive filling, not too sweet, and a topping that is more crumbly than a uniform crust. You can play with the proportions to make it more to your taste - less cornstarch for a more liquid filling, melted instead of softened butter for a crust-like topping, exchanging some of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour or rolled oats. The filling also adapts to almost any fruit your little heart desires.

For the topping:

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour 

1 tsp. baking powder

3 Tbp. brown sugar

3 Tbs. raw sugar or evaporated cane juice

zest of one lemon

1 stick unsalted butter, softened but still slightly chilled

For the filling:

2 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch cubes

1 quart + a few extra strawberries, hulled and quartered

1/2 - 2/3 cup sugar **depends on the relative ripeness of your rhubarb and strawberries

juice of one lemon

3 - 4 Tbs. cornstarch

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 375F. Cover an edged baking sheet with a piece of aluminum foil.

Combine the rhubarb and strawberry pieces in a medium bowl. Sprinkle the sugar over the surface of the fruit, and let stand for 15 minutes at room temperature.

Combine the dry ingredients for the topping in a medium bowl. Cut the butter into large chunks, and cut into the flour-sugar mixture with a pastry cutter or two knives until large and small pieces form; the largest butter pieces should be pea-sized. Put flour-butter mixture into fridge until you are ready to use it.

Add lemon juice, cornstarch and salt to the fruits, mix well, and pour into a glass baking dish (a 9-inch deep dish pie plate, 8x8-inch pan, or 7x10-inch pan will all work, each giving you slightly different ratios of topping to filling). Smooth fruits with the back of a spoon or your hands. Sprinkle the topping over the fruits, and smooth with the back of a spoon or your hands until it evenly and thickly coats the fruit.

Put the baking dish on the aluminum foil-covered baking sheet. Bake for 40 - 50 minutes, until the topping is golden and the fruit is bubbling up through the topping.

Poppyseed Angel Food Cake with Grapefruit Curd

I've been a super-procrastinator lately with the updates. There are a few reasons for this, but mostly it's due to laziness. Also, I've been borrowing heavily from smittenkitchen.com, and frankly, it seems a little silly to spend a bunch of time typing up recipes that anyone can get to with mere clicks. Some things I've made recently that have been stellar are the blondies (so easy), peanut butter chocolate rice krispie bars (so dangerous), goat cheese pasta with asparagus (so refreshing), and peanut butter cookies (so classic). Go nuts, kids.

This is another recipe from Regan Daley's In The Sweet Kitchen that is a stunning rendition of a classic cake. The angel food cake gets a little something different from the poppyseeds; I've made this both with and without, and it was very good both ways. I've also played with the grapefruit curd, swapping out the citrus juice and zest for an orange/grapefruit mix, and straight lemon. I thought all three were excellent, but I would probably rank them 1. lemon, 2. grapefruit, 3. orange-grapefruit as my preference. The angel food cake - curd mash-up is really spectacular, and convenient, because the curd uses as many egg yolks as the cake does whites. Most recently, I also made some raspberry sauce to go with the cake-curd combo, and that was a very good idea.  

NB: for this recipe, it is important that the tools you use to make the cake - pan, bowls, mixers, spatulas, etc - all be very clean and grease-free. Even a little bit of fat can keep the egg whites from achieving their full volume.

For the cake:

1 cup cake flour (not self-rising)

1 1/2 cups superfine sugar

1 1/2 cups egg whites, at room temperature (about 10 extra large, 12 large)

2 Tbs. warm water

1 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 Tbs. poppyseeds

For the curd:

12 large egg yolks

1 cup superfine sugar

2 tsp. finely grated pink or yellow grapefruit zest

3/4 cup freshly squeezed pink or yellow grapefruit juice

3 Tbs. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

To make the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place a clean, removable-bottom 10-inch tube pan off to the side. Working between two sheets of parchment or waxed paper, sift the flour and 1/2 cup of the sugar together 3 times, and set off to the side.

In a very large bowl, beat the egg whites with the warm water until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and the salt a whip the whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining sugar, a little at a time, whipping constantly. When all the sugar has been added, the whites should be firm, glossy and hold stiff peaks. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Incorporate the flour-sugar mixture gently but quickly to avoid deflating the whites. Sprinkle about 1/4 of the flour mixture over the whites and using your clean hands, fold the batter over onto itself, making sure to reach down to the bottom of the bowl and all around the sides. When you don't see or feel lumps, and another 1/4 of the flour mixture. Repeat until the final 1/4 is almost incorporated, and add the poppyseeds. The batter should be very light and fluffy, but smooth. Scrape the batter into the pan without banging the spatula on the bowl or the bowl on the counter, as this will deflate the whites. Smooth the top of the batter, and run a clean knife through the pan to rupture any large air bubbles.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out clean, and the top is cracked and golden. Invert the pan onto its legs, over the neck of a wine bottle, or into a colander, cake-side down to prevent sinking. Cool completely

To unmold, run a thin-bladed knife around the outside and center tube of the pan. Carefully pull the tube upwards, and run a knife around the bottom of the cake, then invert onto a cake platter. The best way to cut this cake is with 2 back-to-back forks, pulling the pieces apart from the rest of the cake. This will keep the cake from getting smashed by a knife. Well-covered leftovers can be stored for several days at room temp. 

To make the curd:

Fill a large pot with an inch or two of water and bring to a simmer. Place a fine mesh sieve over a medium-sized bowl, set aside. Put the egg yolks in a heat-proof bowl and whisk until frothy, then whisk in the sugar. Whisk in the grapefruit juice and zest, and the lemon juice.

Set the bowl over the simmering water and adjust the heat to keep the water just barely simmering. Cook the mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickly coats the back of the spoon and a finger drawn over the back of the spoon leaves a clean trail, at least 10 minutes. Make sure the spoon sweeps the sides and bottom of the bowl. Once the curd has thickened, pour it through the strainer. **The curd must be kept moving or the yolks will cook unevenly, and you'll end up with a grapefruit flavored omelet, which is exactly as gross as it sounds. 

With a clean spoon or rubber spatula, stir the butter into the hot curd a few pieces at a time, blending well after each addition. Press a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the bowl to prevent a skin from forming, poke a few holes with a sharp knife, cool to lukewarm, and refrigerate until cold for 2-8 hours. May be stored, well-covered in the fridge, for 3 days.