Rhubarb is one of those
ingredients that took me ages before even thinking of using it in a recipe. It
is actually very hard to find rhubarb in southern Italy, so it s been only in a
late stage –mid twenty- and over the native land border, that I have tried it
and enjoyed it.
First time I tried it was in a crumble I had indulged into at a lovely cafè in Coven Garden..It came in this ceramic container all splashed in red and with a crunchy top.. In that precise moment rhubarb stole my heart, inspiring in many other recipes and also enriched my dish presentation, with its amazing color that results effective either in cakes, jams or crumbles.
The following recipe is therefore
my reinterpretation of the original one, with the result of an old fashion fruity
cake enhanced by the present of hazelnut meal and made sparkling by a crunchy top.
Clapping hands and a
second round are guaranteed..
Ingredients for 6 small
cakes or 1 medium one:
110 gr Brown sugar
110 gr Caster sugar
185 gr Organic butter
125 gr Whole meal flour
125 gr White flour
40 gr Hazelnut meal
3 eggs
250 gr roughly chopped
Rhubarb
250 gr roughly chopped
Strawberries
165 gr Whole milk yogurt
1 spoon of each ground
ginger and nutmeg
1 spoon baking powder
juice of 1/2 orange
Zest of one organic lemon
Crunchy top
40 gr White flour
80 gr melted butter
60 gr chopped hazelnut
40 gr brown sugar
Preheat the over at 180°.
For crunchy topping mix
all the ingredients and get them into rough crumbles. Keep in the freezer until
time to use them. The low temperature will avoid them to melt during baking
time.
Combine chopped rhubarb
and strawberries, add one spoon of each sugar and the juice of half orange and the
zest of one lemon. Set aside.
Beat butter with remaining
sugar until pale, add eggs one at a time keeping beating. Add dry ingredients
than incorporate yogurt at the end. Add 2/3 of the fruit mixture to the batter
keeping the rest apart for cakes final decoration. Get 6 small tins buttered and lined on the base with baking paper and add 150 gr each of cake mixture. If you
have extra batter spread it evenly among the tins. Scatter over one spoon of remaining fruit
mixture and one spoon of frozen crunchy hazelnut mixture. Bake until a skewer
inserted withdraws clean (approximately 1 hour at 180°). Cool in tin for about
30 minutes and serve with yogurt or pouring cream.
