Rhubarb and mascarpone tart

 

The rainy April and early May has been excellent for garden rhubarb but, now the hot weather has arrived it will rapidly dry out and become straw-like.  Before that happens, I’ve just managed to sneak in one more rhubarb recipe!

This tart has a shortbread base which is very buttery, very short and very crumbly.  It tastes just like the lightest shortbread biscuit you’ve ever eaten but is soft and tricky to work with, although it does patch well.  The original recipe I adapted said you should bake it blind, as you would pastry i.e. baking paper and beans.  I did this and, after baking, when I lifted the paper out, most of the shortbread went with it!  After laughing at how amusing this was (yeah, right) I found myself scraping soft shortbread off the paper and spreading it back into the tin – just about saving it.  What I’m trying to say is – don’t line the baking paper with beans.  Unless you want heartbreak!

The creamy mascarpone filling is light and creamy.  I will definitely use it for other fruits, such as peach, plum, raspberry or apricot.  It has a hint of cheesecake tang but is lighter and firmer in texture.

For all my rantings about the shortbread tart case it is sooooo worth it!  The buttery crumbly texture is divine and it has that almost granular shortbread texture that gives it more bite and substance than pastry.

Occasionally, I muse on how fun or difficult certain words are to type.   If you’ve missed this fear not, for here’s a summary:

Nice words to type: Demerara (flows like music across the keyboard)

Nasty words to type: Desiccated (is it two S’s or C’s?)

I would like to add “mascarpone” to the nasty words list – after the initial “ma” I always hesitate thinking, “does the ‘r’ come now or after the second ‘a’”.  Just me then.....

Ingredients

For the rhubarb:

500g rhubarb, cut into 2cm chunks
60g caster sugar

For the shortbread base:

135g unsalted butter, at room temperature
65g caster sugar
160g plain flour
15g cornflour
25g brown rice flour

For the filling:

115g caster sugar
30g unsalted butter, at room temperature
225g mascarpone
30g plain flour
2 eggs – separated
100ml double cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/gas mark 5.

Place the rhubarb on an oven tray and sprinkle over the sugar.

Roast for approximately 15 minutes or until the rhubarb is soft, but still holding its shape.

Tip into a sieve and leave to cool.

Now make the shortbread base: Place all the ingredients in the food processor and pulse until you have squidgy crumbs that look like they will squeeze together to make a dough.  If you don’t have a processor, make by the rubbing in method.

Tip the dough out onto a sheet of clingfilm and, with as little handling as possible, bring into a ball.

If your dough is very soft refrigerate it briefly.  I didn’t as I feared it would make the shortbread tricky to roll out.  It rolls well soft and patches easily.

Roll out between two sheets of clingfilm until it will line a 25cm loose bottomed flan tin.  No need to grease the tin.

Don’t panic – the pastry will be very thin.

Gently place a sheet of baking paper down onto the pastry but don’t use baking beans – I found the pastry too soft for them.

Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is just turning golden and biscuity.

Leave to cool, then wrap a foil collar around the outside of the tin – this is to protect the filling from spilling out when it soufflés during baking.  Not sure it’s really necessary so make your own judgement – all I’ll say it, next time, I won’t bother.

Now make the filling: place the butter, sugar and mascarpone in a large bowl and beat together.

Beat in the egg yolks and cream.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until you have soft peaks.

Fold into the mascarpone mixture and ensure all ingredients are well combined.

Spoon into the cooled pastry case and level the surface.

Place the cooled rhubarb chunks on top.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until golden brown.  Another clue it’s ready is that the filling should be firm but with a bit of a wobble when you shake the tin.

Leave to cool – don’t panic that the filling will sink a little.

Serve, at room temperature on its own or – if you must – with cream!

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Baking goodies...

Thank you Mr Postman - look what he brought me!  All these glorious goodies are from Lakeland.

I'm thinking my plan of attack will be as follows: 

• anything with a crown = jubilee
• anything with a flag = olympics

Bring on the summer of baking!

Chocolate fudge birthday cake

It is Mr CC’s birthday and time for one of his ‘challenges’ that only serve to prove what a hopeless cake decorator I am!  This year he wanted a chocolate cake (hurrah!  I can do that!) in the shape of Domo (shi....I mean sugar!).  Now Domo is quite a straightforward looking chap...but it’s always the simple characters that are the hardest to get right as there’s nowhere to hide.

Carving is not my forte:

Domo is an international phenomenon with a range of merchandise to rival Hello Kitty.  He is the mascot for a Japanese television station.  If you haven’t come across him, this is what he looks like:

I chose a rich chocolate sponge and this recipe in particular interested me because of the sheer amount of chocolate and cocoa it contains.  It is quite dense almost like a sponge/brownie hybrid – a heavy, but very flavoursome cake.  The addition of sour cream works well and adds a tang to the flavour and stops the whole texture being too cloying.

The chocolate fudge icing couldn’t be simpler – only three ingredients!  Not that you can see much of it, because Mr CC hinted that chocolate sprinkles might replicate Domo’s fur...hence the whole tube of chocolate sprinkles covering the cake!  The icing is a little unconventional and I need to point out how ugly it is when cooled.  Here it is just made and needing to cool (nice):

Here it is cooled and rather icky looking:

Here it is lovely and beaten and ready to spread on the cake.  What I’m trying to convey is don’t lose heart and think you’ve done anything wrong when it’s cooled:

This cake is rich – I’d recommend serving it with some cream to lighten it.  It is also more chocolatey than chocolate; a boast I don’t make lightly (I’d hate you to take me at my word and then be disappointed).  Serve in small slices...this is one to savour!

As it was a cake for Mr CC’s birthday, I didn’t want him to see it before it was finished.  I therefore had to delegate the final inspection to Domo Nerd:

If you don’t want a Domo cake (why wouldn’t you?????) then simply make this cake in a traybake tin and serve that way.  If you are making it like that then maybe halve the icing amounts, as I needed extra to cover the sides of Domo!

Happy birthday Mr CC

Ingredients

For the cake:
300g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g unsalted butter
300g light muscovado sugar
150ml hot water i.e. not just boiled but still hot
150ml soured cream
3 eggs, beaten
300g self raising flour
110g cocoa powder

For the icing (this is what I used; if you’re making a traybake consider halving it):
200g dark chocolate
340g condensed milk
200g unsalted butter

To decorate: chocolate sprinkles, fondant icing and maltesers (for the eyes)
To serve: cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C/fan oven 140°C/320°F/Gas mark 3.

Grease a 30cm x 20cm traybake tin.  I actually used a 27cm square disposable foil tin as, once I cut a strip of cake off to make the arms, it left me with a better Domo shape!

Put the chocolate, butter, sugar and hot water into a large saucepan and gently melt together, stirring frequently.

Once melted and combined remove from the heat and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Stir in the soured cream and the eggs.

Transfer the mix to a stand mixer, or a bowl suitable to use an electric whisk in, and add the flour and cocoa.

Beat just until the ingredients are combined.  (NB.  I tried to incorporate the flour and cocoa in the pan using a balloon whisk but it was just too heavy and clumpy for my feeble arms to manage – hence the stand mixer)

Pour into the prepared tin – it will be runny – and bake for approximately an hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out almost clean.  I’d check the cake after 50 minutes as all ovens are different.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

When the cake is cool you can make the icing: Place all the ingredients in a bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water.

Leave the ingredients to melt, stirring occasionally.

Remove from the saucepan and leave to cool; you may need to chill it to get it to a spreadable consistency.

If your icing looks a bit gloopy and unspreadable, put it in your stand mixer and beat it for a couple of minutes – this gets the texture just right for spreading.

Either spread the icing over the top of your traybake, or use to completely cover your Domo!

Decorate as required.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Blueberry, cherry, cranberry and pecan oaties

 

Fruity oat biscuits and just in time for the first hint of summer!  Somehow using blueberries, cherries and cranberries rather than the more usual dried fruit fare makes these tasty, fresh and new – a refreshing change for your palette.

These are classic fruity oat biscuits but with an almost hidden secret: pecans.  In all honesty, I’m not sure you’d know the biscuits contained pecans (I chopped mine quite small) but you’d know there was something extra as there is a rich roundness to the flavour that is an unusual, but most welcome, addition to an oat biscuit.

The texture is like a crisp flapjack.  I must warn you that the dough is sticky in its raw state.  Don’t fret when you’re shaping the dough into a fat sausage for chilling – it really firms up in the fridge and is easy to work with.  A good sharp long bladed knife makes the cutting easier – I experimented with a serrated knife and it rather butchered the dough!

A very popular bake this one – the CCB (Caked Crusader’s Brother) commented that they had everything he loved about a biscuit.  When asked what this was, his first (and only) response was that they were, “big”.

Save yourself time and double the quantities for a 24 biscuit batch; they keep well for days and are very pleasing to have in the biscuit tin for emergencies.....such as needing a biscuit urgently.

Ingredients

175g plain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
85g porridge oats
175g golden caster sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
140g unsalted butter – straight from the fridge
90g dried fruit – I used blueberries, cherries and cranberries but raisins or sultanas would also work
50g pecans – chopped
1 egg

Method

Place the flour, baking powder, porridge oats, golden caster sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl and mix together.

Add the butter and rub the mixture through your fingertips until the butter is completely incorporated.

Stir in the dried fruit, nuts and the egg.  At this point the mixture will be wet and clumpy but not quite coming together.

Use your hand to bring the dough together then tip out onto a large sheet of clingfilm.

Roll the dough into a fat sausage and flatten the ends.  You’re aiming for a diameter of about 6cm.

Wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for about an hour or until the dough has firmed up.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

Line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Remove the biscuit log from the fridge and unwrap the clingfilm.

Cut the log into 12 fat discs and place on the baking sheets.  Don’t worry if the biscuit log crumbles a bit while you cut it – it will squidge back together.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until golden.  Mine took a bit longer – approx 20 minutes.

Leave, on the tray, to cool and firm up.

Store in an airtight container.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.