Rhubarb Focaccia

It's time again for  Secret Recipe Club (Secret Recipe Club) reveal!  My secret blog assignment this month was Culinary Adventures with Camilla.  As the name of her blog suggests, Camilla is very adventurous with her cooking.  She loves trying new ingredients and exploring the cuisine of different countries, and she hopes to inspire the readers of her blog to try something new, too.

I found several recipes that looked interesting.  Here are a few of them:

• Curried Chicken with Vanilla
• Boozy Spiced Cranberry Sauce
• Pumpkin Potato Pepper Enchiladas
• Chocolate Zucchini Brownies 

I actually did make the Chocolate Zucchini Brownies.  They were more like a dark chocolate cake than actual brownies and not too sweet, so I really liked them.  BUT, they weren't really something new or adventurous, so I thought I should take Camilla's challenge and make something I'd never made before.  I chose her Rhubarb Focaccia because I have a hard time resisting anything with rhubarb - rhubarb is not my new ingredient.  What's new is that I had never made Focaccia before - savory or sweet.  I'm not sure I'd ever even eaten it, either.

Rhubarb Focaccia
from Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Ingredients:
Sweet Focaccia Dough

• 4-1/2 to 5 cups flour (divided)
• 2-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (1 pkg.)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1-3/4 cups warm water
• 1 T raw organic honey
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup coconut oil 

Topping

• 2 cups chopped rhubarb (fresh or frozen)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• additional sugar and olive oil

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups flour, salt, and yeast.
2. Combine the warm water, olive oil and honey in a small bowl or 2-cup measuring cup. 
3. Stir the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture; gradually add remaining flour, mixing in as much as you can with a spoon and then kneading until it becomes smooth and soft (5 to 6 minutes).
4. Coat the inside of the bowl with olive oil and return the dough to the bowl; turn to coat. Cover and allow dough to rise until it has doubled in size, at least 1 hour.
5. When dough has risen, punch down and allow to rest 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, coat a jelly roll pan with the coconut oil.  (If your coconut oil is solid, place the pan in the oven on low until it has melted.)
6. Slightly flatten dough and place it in the jelly roll pan, turning once to coat with coconut oil.  Begin pressing and stretching the dough to fit the pan.  Then press your fingers through the dough, making dimples all the way to the pan, all over the dough. Sprinkle the dough with chopped rhubarb, pressing it into the dough, and 1/4 cup sugar.
7. Cover and let dough rise until it has doubled in size again, about 1 hour. 
8. When focaccia is ready to bake, preheat oven to 425° and generously sprinkle the top with some more sugar and lightly drizzle a little more olive oil on top.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until the top of the loaf is golden brown. Cool before cutting and serving.

This stuff is really good.  The crust is kinda flaky and crunchy, and the texture of the dough is nice and soft.

The first time I made it, my husband wasn't really impressed.  He felt like there wasn't enough fruit and that it was basically just bread.  He's not quite as crazy about bread as I am - and this is good bread.  Mostly the problem was that my  frozen rhubarb had been thawed, so most of the juice was gone - I saved it and used it in a smoothie, but that didn't do the focaccia any good.  And, a lot of the rhubarb fell off when I cut it,  so a lot of it really was 'just bread' even if it was good bread.

So I made it again.

This time I used frozen rhubarb - without allowing it to thaw - and pressed it into the dough.  And I split the dough and made two so I'd have more of that lovely crust.  What made my husband especially happy is that I made a simple powdered sugar glaze - melted butter, vanilla, powdered sugar, milk - and drizzled it on top.

Totally yummy and hard to stop eating - with or without the glaze!  Thanks, Camilla, for getting me to try something new!

An InLinkz Link-up

Related articles

• Cinnamon Raisin Focaccia
• Focaccia
• Zucchini and Caramelized Onion Focaccia

Blackberry Rhubarb Crumble

I'm kind of obsessed with everything rhubarb right now, so when I pulled a package of blackberries out of my freezer, I went looking for a recipe that called for both blackberries and rhubarb.  I found recipes for Rhubarb and Blackberry Snack Cake, Rhubarb and Blackberry Crumble Bars, and this Blackberry Rhubarb Crumble.

Blackberry Rhubarb Crumble
adapted from theKitchn

For the fruit:

• 2 cups frozen blackberries, mostly thawed
• 4 cups frozen rhubarb, mostly thawed
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• Pinch salt

For the crumble topping:

• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick), melted

Directions:

1. Place the blackberries and rhubarb in a 9x13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle with the 1/2 cup brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and salt; toss gently.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs.  Mix in the vanilla and 3/4 cup brown sugar.
3. Mix the flour with the baking powder and salt and stir into egg mixture to make a clumpy dough.
4. Using your hands, drop clumps of dough evenly over the fruit.  Have some extra flour handy to clean off your hands and clean out the bowl, spreading 'crumbles' over the top of the clumps. Sprinkle the chopped pecans over the top, then pour the melted butter over everything.
5. Bake for 35 minutes at 375°F, or until the top is golden brown and the crumble is baked through. Let sit for at least 30 minutes before eating.

The original recipe called for a bit more (fresh) fruit, but I used what I had - frozen.  One of the comments said that rhubarb and blackberries are not in season at the same time, making it hard to have both at the same time.  Using frozen works very well and solves that problem.  It does not even need to be completely thawed.

I mixed the fruit, sugar, cinnamon and ginger right in the baking dish -
no need to dirty another bowl.

What surprised me - never putting rhubarb and blackberries together before - is that the blackberry flavor really comes through, even though there is twice as much rhubarb.  I did not cut the sugar down in this recipe as I normally do because Faith, who posted the original recipe said the fruit was "proudly tangy and not too sweet" and that rhubarb should not be covered up with sugar - which I completely agree with, of course.  So I took her at her word, and I think it was just right.

Fresh out of the oven

Yum!

I especially love the topping on this.  I'm pretty sure it's the brown sugar.    I'm going to have to try it with different fruits, too.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy!

Related articles

• Rhubarb Crumb Bars
• Rhubarb Crumble
• Rhubarb crumble - with a twist
• Rhubarb Apple Crisp

Rhubarb Apple Crisp

It's Spring, which means Rhubarb!  If you're lucky enough to know somebody who has some - and even luckier to have someone willing to go cut it for you.  Oh, I would definitely go cut my own rhubarb because I love it, but my friend Peggy lives closer to our friend Alice than I do, so she gets me some when she gets hers.  I use it in muffins, rhubarb bread, this Rhubarb Pudding Cake that I adore, and pretty much anything else I can think of.  And I freeze lots of it so I can have rhubarb throughout the year.

Today I was thinking Rhubarb Apple Crisp, so I went looking for recipes - as if I don't already have plenty of my own recipes - like that pudding cake that I'm now wishing I'd remembered and made.  But anyway, I found this one for Apple-Rhubarb Crisp that looked pretty good, so I started there.  But I wanted a different topping, because my friend Peggy, who cuts the rhubarb, doesn't eat wheat, and I wanted to avoid using flour.  That's when I found the Apple Cranberry Crisp recipe in my favorite cookbook ever - The Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals - and I had a note right there in the cookbook that the recipe is also good with rhubarb and apples, as well as a modified topping recipe - without flour.  So I used the basic idea of the recipe I'd looked up - because I liked the idea of the juice mixed in with the fruit - with the topping I had written in the cookbook.

Rhubarb Apple Crisp
adapted from About.com Southern Food and The Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chopped rhubarb (fresh or frozen)
• 3 medium apples, cored and diced
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 T. pineapple orange juice (or orange juice)
• 6 T. butter, melted
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup whole oats
• 1/3 cup quick oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

ready to bake

Directions:

1. Mix rhubarb, apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and juice.  Place in 2-qt baking dish.  (or mix directly in the baking dish)
2. Mix topping ingredients - melted butter, brown sugar, oats, and pecans - until crumbly, and spread evenly over fruit.
3. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until fruit is tender and bubbly and topping is browned.
4. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Yum!

Rhubarb Bread

I was going to make Rhubarb Muffins, but then thought I'd try something different.  So I searched Pinterest for Rhubarb Bread recipes.  There were several that looked delicious, but I settled on this one from Hoot-n-Nanny.  The oatmeal on top was what sold me.  I cut down the sugar and oil just a bit and used some white whole wheat flour. 

Rhubarb Bread
adapted from Hoot-n-Nanny

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup soured milk *
• 2-1/2 cups flour (part whole wheat)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 cups chopped rhubarb

Topping:

• 3 T. butter, melted
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup rolled oats

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°.   While oven heats, place butter for topping in an oven-proof mixing bowl and place it in the oven to melt.
2. In a large bowl, mix together egg, oil and 1 cup brown sugar. Stir in soured milk and vanilla.  Combine flour, salt and baking soda and cinnamon and stir into sugar mixture until combined.  Fold in rhubarb.  Pour batter into two lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pans.
3. Remove bowl with melted butter from the oven and add the rest of topping ingredients.  Sprinkle over the unbaked loaves.
4. Bake in a preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. 
5. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes then remove from pans. 

* to make soured milk, put 1 T vinegar or lemon juice into measuring cup; add milk to make 1 cup, stirring to combine, and let sit for a few minutes at room temperature.

I used 1-1/2 cups white whole wheat flour and 1 cup unbleached flour.  I buy the Wheat Montana Prairie Gold flour at Walmart.  It's made from hard white spring wheat and finely ground so it's lighter than traditional whole wheat flour but still has all the whole grain benefits.  I think traditional whole wheat flour would add a bit more flavor and texture to this, but I'd probably switch the measurements and use only 1 cup of whole wheat and 1-1/2 cups unbleached. I might add a tablespoon of ground flaxseed for flavor, too.

Other than that, I don't think I'd change a thing about this bread.  It's really good, and I especially like the brown sugar and oat mixture on the top.  It kind of bakes down into the bread in places and gives it a kinda of crunchy/gooey bite, and it's yummy. It does make the bread a bit crumbly, so it's best to use a plate when eating this - or stand over the kitchen sink, so you don't make a mess.

I suppose you could put butter on this, but so far I've just been slicing it and eating it.  Or there was another recipe on Pinterest that included a recipe for Honey Rhubarb Butter - which would probably be great on this and other things too.  I may just need to pull another package of rhubarb out of the freezer...

Update: I had to make the Honey Rhubarb Butter.  I used 1 package of frozen rhubarb (2 cups, mostly thawed), 2 T water, about 3 T raw honey, 1 tsp. cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp. cloves.  I cooked the rhubarb and water until mushy then stirred in the honey and spices.  I did not blend it because it didn't seem to need any blending.  It's really good on the rhubarb bread, and I think it will be really good on other things like toast and biscuits.  I'm thinking I'll cut the cloves in half and only use 1/4 teaspoon next time, because they're a bit strong - not bad, really; I just think I'll like it better with less.

Rhubarb Raspberry Crisp

I've never tried rhubarb and raspberries together. Why? I don't know, but for some reason the idea popped into my head the other day - probably because I was thinking about what I have in my freezer and need to start using. 

So I went looking for a 'raspberry rhubarb dessert' and this is what I found. 

Rhubarb Raspberry Crisp

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cut rhubarb
• 2 cups raspberries, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (or pecans)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cold butter, cut into chunks

Directions:

1. In a shallow 2- to 3-quart baking dish, combine rhubarb, raspberries, granulated sugar, and cornstarch and mix gently to coat.
2. In a large bowl, mix oats, flour, nuts, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. With your fingers or a pastry blender, rub or cut butter into oat mixture until coarse crumbs form. Sprinkle evenly over rhubarb and raspberry mixture.
3.  Bake in a 350° regular oven until topping is golden brown and fruit is bubbling, about 45 minutes. 

Serve warm or at room temperature.

original recipe

As noted, I used frozen rhubarb and raspberries, mostly thawed and undrained, but this would of course be great with fresh fruit, too.  I only used half the raspberries the original recipe called for and cut the sugar in the fruit down from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup because I want to taste the tartness of the rhubarb.  I think it turned out great.  A nice dollop of vanilla ice cream would be great on top, but it was yummy just by itself.

Rhubarb and raspberries go very well together.

Related articles

• Raspberry and Lemon Individual Pudding Cakes

Rhubarb Pudding Cake

I found this recipe in the newspaper - LOVE the food section of the paper! - and I've been wanting to make it for a while.  It's been hanging on the fridge since I found it.  Thanks to my sweet friend Peggy, I have plenty of rhubarb (not that I wouldn't take more if it came available), so I made it last week.  It was so good, I had to make it again this week for potluck.

Rhubarb Pudding Cake

Ingredients:

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar (divided)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• ½ cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 cups (1-inch-thick) sliced rhubarb (about 1 pound)
• 1 teaspoon powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

1.  Place butter in a large bowl and beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add 2/3 cup granulated sugar; beat until well blended.  Add vanilla and egg, beat well, then add milk.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  Beat into butter mixture until smooth.
3. Combine rhubarb and remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar in an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray. Spoon batter over rhubarb mixture.
4. Bake in preheated 350° oven 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. 
5. Cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream if desired.

 The notes on the recipe said:

If fresh rhubarb isn't available, make it with frozen rhubarb, thawed and well drained. The cake is good either way, although it's moister and more pudding-like with fresh.

I made it with fresh rhubarb the first time and with frozen the next, though I didn't completely thaw or drain the frozen rhubarb - so I guess we'll see.  I'm not sure it was 'pudding-like' at all, even with fresh rhubarb.  It was a very moist cake with a wonderful flavor!  I had it with whipped cream the first time, but I didn't bother with the whipped cream after that.  The cake is just perfect on its own.  A little vanilla ice cream on top isn't bad, either.

The original recipe called for mixing 2/3 cup sugar with the rhubarb, but I cut that in half because I believe you should be able to taste the tartness of the rhubarb. I love the burst of tart flavor from the rhubarb balanced against the sweetness of the cake. I hate that most recipes want to hide that tartness with so much sugar!  If you're looking for sweet, then I think you should try something else, because rhubarb is tart, and that's what makes it special! 

Related articles

• Rhubarb & Custard Cake
• Rhubarb pudding cake

• Rhubarb Cake (sharonrwagner.blogspot.com)
• Strawberry Rhubarb Muffins! (makeabirthdaywish.wordpress.com)
• Rhubarb, rhubarb...or having my cake and plenty of it! (jessicamiln.com)

Rhubarb Muffins

I've got some rhubarb, thanks to a couple wonderful friends, and I'm going to make some muffins. This first recipe is one I've made in the past, and they are really good.

Rhubarb Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1-1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1-1/2 cups diced rhubarb
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

• 2-1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. butter, melted
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

1. In large bowl, combine brown sugar, oil, egg, vanilla and buttermilk. Mix well. Stir in rhubarb and walnuts.
2. In smaller bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to rhubarb mixture. Stir only until moistened.
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins. Combine melted butter, white sugar and cinnamon. Spoon over top of each muffin, lightly pressing it down.
4. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes.

Makes 18 muffins

This recipe is one that my friend Peggy used. Her muffins turned out really good, so I think I'm going to try this one.  I like that it has less sugar.

Rhubarb Sour Cream Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups fresh rhubarb, chopped
• 1 tablespoon sugar 

Directions:

1. Cream brown sugar and butter.
2. Add sour cream and eggs, mix well.
3. Sift together flour, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon.
4. Stir flour mixture into the sour cream mixture until moistened.
5. Fold in rhubarb.
6. Pour into greased muffin tins.
7. Mix together sugar and remaining cinnamon and sprinkle over batter.
8. Bake at 375° for 25 to 30 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins

I think yogurt could be substituted for the sour cream.  Also, I like using at least half whole-wheat flour, for better texture and flavor.

Related articles

• What to do with day old oatmeal and give rhubarb a chance. (agirlandhercarrot.wordpress.com)
• Cranberry Upside Down Muffins (patisseriespetite.wordpress.com)
• Rhubarb (jenawix.wordpress.com)