Everything Rhubarb and some Chocolate too.

I love Rhubarb.  I love the colour and I love the taste.  When I was little we used to pick slender stalks and dip them in the sugar bowl and eat them like candy.  My mom also used to make rhubarb compot which we ate hot with cold milk as desert.  And it seems that the only jam that was ever available back then was Rhubarb jam, the only Rhubarb thing that I don't really like.  I've made it a bit of a hobby to find unusual recipes with Rhubarb and I've posted some here like the delicious Rhubarb soup and the fantastic Rhubarb ice cream.

I got a phone call the other day from a woman I've never met and she asked me to participate in the Day of the Rhubarb which is being held in a kind of Folk museum in the City.  Apparently she got my name from the Gardening Society as someone who is an expert on using Rhubarb.  Oh!  Ok!  I can be that!

So I've been up to my eyeballs in Rhubarb ever since that phone call, wiping the dust off my various Rhubarb recipes and looking for new ones, making stuff from the recipes to snap photos and even creating one, this Rhubarb and Chocolate chip muffins.  Well, at least adjusting a recipe to fit me needs.  In my 20 minute talk I want to show how incredibly versatile Rhubarb is and give people recipes for every part of the plant.

I didn't have a photo of my Rhubarb syrup, so I made some so that I could snap a picture.  When making syrup, there is always the problem of what to do with the mash that is left from sieving.  This time I adjusted a muffin recipe and came up with this:

Rhubarb and Chocolate Muffins.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

2 tsps baking powder

1/4 tsp salt 

3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1/2 cup melted butter 

1/2 cup rhubarb mash plus almost the same amount to put on top

1/4 cup milk

3 eggs 

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Start by turning the oven on to 200C / 400F and line some muffin forms.  This recipe is perfect for 12 muffins. 

Mix the sugar, melted butter, rhubarb mash, milk, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth.  Combine the dry ingredients; flour, baking powder and stir it into the wet mix.  Don't over mix this, a few lumps are fine.  Add the chocolate chips.
Fill the muffin form and put a small dollop of rhubarb mash on top and a chocolate chip.  Sprinkle with some sugar.  Bake for about 20-30 minutes, check with a toothpick.

They were really nice and I was very happy that I didn't have to throw away food.  Although I could have put it on the compost heap, but this is so much better.

The speaking thing is on June 30th and I have reserved the rest of the month to everything Rhubarb.  Dyeing yarn and hair, insect poison, and, yes!  There is Rhubarb soap.  Might be two different ones.  And it's all coming soon to a ...
....

Caramel cake - a sweet thing.

This cake was in every birthday party that my mom held for me and my sister when we were kids and I have made it for my daughters birthdays every year.  I've never had anything remotely similar anywhere else and I don't know where the recipe comes from (altough I think it comes from the USA through my aunt).  This is one of the things that I've always meant to ask my mom about.

My younger daughter  just graduated from what would be junior college in the US (the older one is graduating in a few days with a bachelors degree from a school in Switzerland),  we had a "kaffiboð" last weekend:  Closest family members over for coffee and cakes.  The Caramel cake is a nessessity, although I've noticed that some guests eye it with suspicion and don't dare to taste it.  I'm such a lousy hostess that I love that.  Then there is some left over for me at the end of the day!

The cake is very, very sweet.  It really is like candy, so be warned.  This is no healthy treat.  Just a delightfully childish and sinful calorie bomb.

2/3 cups sugar  /150 g. 
2 eggs
Whisk together well and add:


2/3 cups melted butter  /120 g. - 

Combine and then add:

2/3 cups flour  /75 g. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Put in a small (7-9 inch/ ) round baking form. Bake at 175 C / 350 F

Caramel on top:
2 dl cream
1/2 cup sugar  /125 g.
2 tbsp syrup 

Heat in a pot with a thick bottom and stir continuously until it thickens. Test by dropping into a cold glass of water.  When it forms a ball it is ready to pour on the cake.  Decorate with "thousands and thousands" if you like.  Or use something completely different according to taste.  I serve this with whipped unsweetened cream,  but that's just because I like whipped cream a lot.

Bon appetit (once a year is just about right for this sweet thing).

The photo: This is just memories for me: Childhood birthday cakes. The candle holders are a Christmas present from my mother in law and the doilies for the dress are hanging from the branch I have in the living/dining room.

Oatmeal and cranberry cookies and homemade treats for the bitches

Yep, I have two bitches (and, no I'm not talking about my daughters :). They are Bichon Frise mother and daughter. The mother is 9 years old, she has a gentle personality, dislikes water and is a very picky eater. Her daughter jumps in the pond every chance she gets, is incredibly innovative in finding projects to work on (most involving destruction of some kind) and eats everything she finds. I used to be able to put dry dog food in a bowl and the mother would nibble when she felt like it. Not so with the daughter. I recently realized that she has been eating from mom every chance she gets and is quite overweight, so now she is on a strict diet.

I have gotten interested in making dog food at home and have made some experiments. Mom likes everything I make as long as it is freshly made, but as soon as it has been in the fridge, she looses interest. Even if I've warmed it up, she just turns up her nose and walks away. The little one as I said, will eat anything. So the challenge has been to find something to make that mom will want and I did manage to make a great treat the other day that she absolutely loved.

Today I made treats for us all. My favorite oatmeal and cranberry cookies (with chocolate chips as well) .  The original recipe had white flour and sugar, but I changed it to be a bit healthier than usual.  I also made the sweet honey treat for the dogs, the recipe is something I made up to be a bit like the oatmeal recipe, but no chocolate - and no oatmeal.

Oatmeal and cranberry cookies

Mix in a separate bowl:
1.5 cup whole wheat (or spelt if you prefer)
1 tsp baking soda
0.5 tsp salt
2.5 cups oats

Whisk well together in the mixer:
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
0.5 cup white sugar

Add to this:
 2 large eggs
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp vanilla essence

Lastly add the wheat and oatmeal mix from the bowl and:
1.5 cup cranberries
1 cup chopped up dark chocolate

Put on baking sheet with baking paper with a teaspoon.  Bake at 180C/350F for about 10-12 min.

Sweet honey treat  for the bitches

2.5 cups whole wheat
1 cup boiled rice (I just had that in the fridge, this could also be oats)
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk or cream
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 eggs

Mix everything together.  Make into little balls and squish them flat on a baking sheet.
Bake at 180C/350F for 30 min.  Most recipes for dog treats that I have seen say to let this sit in the oven until cold and hard, but my dogs like them a little soft.  I give them only one a day of these and remember to brush their teeth.
.

The photo: My Swedish kitchen scale, bought at the G. S. for not much is missing it's bowl and little thingy, but it works. I can't resist old baking forms either..

Lovely lemon

Lemons are wonderful.  Their colour makes me smile, the smell of the rind is heavenly, not to mention the blossoms (hence my apprehension for my lemon tree), but the true marvel is the taste.  It's to die for.  When I was little my grandmother used to make a delicious drink that we called "sítrón" and everyone else knows as lemon aid.  I still love that.  But lemons can be used in so many things, both savory and sweet, and there is one thing that tops my list.  This lemon cake.

I found it in a wonderful book, by Molly Wizenberg, called "A homemade life".  The book is one of those books that feels good.  It has a quiet unassuming look, but somthing appealed to me when I pulled it out of the shelf at the book store.  I wasn't disappointed. It's just a lovely read and it's packed with all sorts of great recipes.

This has become an absolute favorite of mine.  And everyone who has tasted it has marvelled.  It's going to be the wedding cake at my daughters wedding. That's how good it is.  It's light and delicious and in my opinion it should be served with whipped cream.  I don't know what it is that happens when whipped cream is added, but the result is pure magic. And please use pure whipped cream - NO sugar added to it (I have never understood that) because it will loose the delicious delicate creamy taste.

The recipe is in three parts, batter, syrup and icing.
Batter:
1 1/2 cup of flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
Put these into a bowl and whisk by hand to mix.  Add to this 2 tsp. of freshly grated lemon zest and mix well. 
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup yogurt
3 large eggs
Put all into the mixer and whisk it well.  Add the flour mixture from the bowl, slowly and stir it only so that it combines.  This batter should not be over mixed.
Now add 1/2 cup sunflower oil to the batter.
Molly warn about this, but I still wasn't prepared.  Don't freak out!  It will look VERY strange at first, but suddenly it will come together and look like proper cake batter.
I always use a Bundt form (that's the type with a hole in it) for this cake, it just looks so pretty.  So I grease it and pour in the batter.  
Bake at 175 celcius (350 F) for 25-35 minutes, but do a test with a pin because it shouldn't be too dry.
It usually falls easily out of the form and onto a wire rack to cool.
Syrup:
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
Whisk together and spoon evenly onto the cake.  This will mostly be absorbed by the cake.
The last part is the icing.  The recipe in the book calls for one cup of sugar.  My preference is to have the icing fairly opaque and thick so I use a lot more.
Icing:
2-3 cups icing sugar
3 tbs. lemon juice
Whisk together sugar and egg whites adding sugar until you like the consitency.  Spoon the icing onto the cake.
Et voilá!  
The decoration in the photo was my first attempt at making sugared flowers and of course I used lemon flowers from my little lemon tree and for the leaves I used Melissa.  I have since discovered that one should whisk the egg whites :)  before covering the flower with it and then roll it in the sugar.  I thought it was strangely lumpy!  Elementary, when one comes to think about it. 


I am looking for some more recipes for light delicious summery cakes for the wedding and would love suggestions.



The photo: Real lemon blossom from my very own Lemon tree that almost died, eaten alive my spider mites.  I've learned since that one is to beat the eggwhites before covering the flower.   Which makes sense to me now.