Last weekend I experienced a culinary disaster, worse even, as in presence of guests. I attempted a beautiful looking strawberry and marshmallow cheesecake, which fucking didn’t set, even overnight. 7 leaves of gelatine and it still poured out of the tin, making me want to throw it at the wall. Good thing, the guests were Zatrybki, who were polite enough not only not to take the piss, but eager to eat it from the bowls. Zatrybek even had seconds.
So this afternoon, in the middle of The Awesome Rota Week, I had a need to bake something, a dessert that worked and was delicious. I had some rhubarb, but didn’t fancy another crumble, so I adjusted Mum’s apple pie recipe and made it with rhubarb instead. If Sojka was reading it, she’d be annoyed, as I haven’t used any measurements. 🙂 I felt confident enough to put together a sweet, crumbly pastry with plain flour, some soft butter, a couple of egg yolks, some icing sugar and a bit of baking powder. And it worked. The rhubarb was cooked quickly with a drop of water, I threw a couple of apples, I thought it was not enough of rhubarb itself, cooked it with brown sugar and discarded the liquid though the sieve and followed Mum’s suggestion of making sure it will not be too runny in the oven- added a bit of breadcrumbs to it.
Baked in 180 degrees until golden, a bit more than 30 mins. Towards the end I put some flaked almonds on top and when cooled, finished with icing sugar. I’m very pleased with it, especially with the pastry, Florian says it could be sweeter. I disagree, rhubarb is rhubarb and must have some distinctive acidity to it. It is now being enjoyed with a lovely cup of tea.
