Tag Archives: Rhubarb

Strawberry Rhubarb Swirl Ice cream

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It’s no secret to regular readers of this blog that I adore rhubarb. That being said, I was shocked to discover there are 18 rhubarb recipes in the archives of my blog! I love the tartness that rhubarb brings to desserts. It’s a great way to achieve flavour balance in desserts, keeping the sweetness at bay.

Local rhubarb does not really arrive in Ottawa until early July and right now I am awash in a sea of rhubarb. Because I no longer have a garden (I’m in a condo now), my son planted a rhubarb patch in his backyard for me for Mother’s Day a few years ago. Rhubarb is a prolific perennial. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

This ice cream is a vanilla base with roasted strawberry-rhubarb compote mixed in. Roasting is an excellent way to boost the flavour profile of fruit. Mix 1.5 cups of halved strawberries, 1 cup sliced rhubarb and 2 tablespoons sugar together on a sheet pan, and roast it in a 350°F oven for about 15 minutes, until the fruit is tender. Mash the fruit with a potato masher until it becomes a chunky sauce. Chill the sauce while you make the ice cream.

If you find yourself with a plethora of rhubarb, slice it and freeze it. Then all winter long you can roast it with frozen strawberries and spoon it over your morning yogurt. It makes winter more bearable.

I used the basic vanilla ice cream recipe from my Cuisinart Ice Cream recipe book. It’s an excellent base for all kinds of flavour mix-ins. The strawberry rhubarb mixture gets swirled in once the ice cream is churned but still soft.

Feel free to serve the ice cream in cones or if you want to make a special sundae dessert, serve it in pretty glasses with this Salted Pistachio Crumble on top. I’m all about texture. Save some of the strawberry rhubarb juice to drizzle on the sundaes.

Click here to print recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Swirl Ice cream with Salted Pistachio Crumble.

Rhubarb Raspberry Pavlova

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Fairly close to the top of my “To Do” list was an item I have been putting off for quite a while (aside from rescheduling my dental cleaning). I have been wanting to master the skills necessary for baking a beautiful pavlova.

I turned to Zoë François for some advice. Her pavlovas, along with the ones created by Rachel Korinek of @twolovesstudio are ones I I have long emulated.

A pavlova is a meringue based dessert named after famed Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. She toured Australia and New Zealand in 1926. The creation of this dessert sparked the famous “Pav War.” New Zealand claims that the chef of a Wellington hotel at the time created the dessert in her honour, apparently inspired by her bell shaped tutu. Australians, on the other hand, claim that the pavlova was invented at a hotel in Perth, and named after the ballerina because the meringue was “as light as Pavlova.”

The meringue base is typically topped with whipped cream and then some type of fruit. Baking the meringue is a bit tricky and requires paying attention to the small details. I baked quite a few last month and here is what I learned.

  • Make sure the bowl of your stand mixer is absolutely clean and free of any grease. Fat is the enemy of meringue.
  • Cold eggs are easier to separate than room temperature eggs as the yolks are firmer when cold and less likely to break. Let cold egg whites sit for at least 30 minutes before beating. Room temperature egg whites will produce greater volume.
  • Use superfine sugar to make the meringue. It dissolves much faster than regular sugar and will give you a smoother meringue. Any undissolved sugar leads to a gritty and/or weeping meringue. I learned that the hard way! If you can’t find any at the supermarket, just place regular granulated sugar in the food processor and process it for about 45 seconds. 
  • Know your peaks. When it comes to gauging doneness of beaten egg whites, you need to understand the stages of doneness. Soft peaks will flop over. Medium peaks will stand up but not completely straight. Stiff peaks stand straight upright.
  • Beat the meringue on low and steady speed. (speed 2 or 4 on my KitchenAid mixer) A slower speed results in a more stable meringue. Once all the sugar is added you can increase the speed to high.
  • Be patient when adding the sugar to the egg whites. Slowly spoon in the sugar while whisking the egg whites. It should take about 5 minutes to add the sugar. Adding the sugar slowly allows it to dissolve. Adding it too quickly will deflate all the air bubbles you are working so hard to achieve.

I find meringue to be very sweet, so I decided to add a tart rhubarb curd to the filling to counterbalance all the sugar. I also paired tart rhubarb with fresh raspberries for an added hit of tartness. The rhubarb is roasted in the oven. The curd and the roasted rhubarb can be made a day in advance. Assemble pavlova the day you plan to serve it.

Here’s a video showing how the assembly comes together. Your meringue will likely crack in the oven. As Zoe says, “that’s the nature of the beast.” Cracks notwithstanding, it will still taste delicious. You will need to carefully remove the top layer of baked meringue to allow you to fill the pavlova with curd, fruit and whipped cream. The outer shell is firm, but inside you will discover a softer marshmallowy layer.

Click to access Rhubarb-Raspberry-Pistachio-Pavlova.pdf

Strawberry-Rhubarb Biscoff Icebox Cake

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If you grew up in the 1970’s you might recall the iconic Nabisco Icebox Cake. Two simple ingredients and no baking required. Chocolate wafer cookies are layered with whipped cream and then set into the fridge for some culinary alchemy. The cookies absorb the moisture from the cream and become soft and cake-like. The texture always reminded me of the Good Humour Ice cream Sandwich -squidgy, in a good way.

My mom was fancy, so she always sprinkled the top with some chocolate shavings.

This version is Julie van Rosendaal’s clever take on the original icebox cake. As soon as I saw her recipe in the Globe and Mail last month, I became obsessed with trying it. I have tweaked her version very slightly by adding some strawberries to the rhubarb compote. Watch how it all comes together.

Biscoff cookies originated in Belgium in 1932 and have become Europe’s favourite cookie. They are similar to gingersnaps but have a much crunchier texture, which I discovered comes from Belgian brown sugar , which is quite different from North American brown sugar. If you’re curious about the difference, you can read all about it here.

The first time I had a Biscoff cookie was in 1991. I had just moved to Ottawa and my Belgian neighbour, Brigitte, invited me over for coffee and a playdate with our kids. She served Speculoos cookies with the coffee. I thought she said “speculum” and was slightly perplexed. I discovered that the brand name was Biscoff (a hybrid of biscuit-coffee) , but the generic name of the cookie is Speculoos. A visit to the gynaecologist never fails to make me think of these cookies. Whatever you call them, they are delicious.

I bought my Biscoff cookies on Amazon. If you live near a Trader Joe’s, they make a version of these cookies as well.

This cake is a great make ahead dessert. Prepare it just to the stage before you slather the top with whipped cream. Cover well and pop it in the freezer for up to a month. Just before serving, unmold from the loaf pan and cover with freshly whipped cream. A great trick I learned from Anna Olson, is to add skim milk powder to your cream before whipping (1 tablespoon per cup of cream). The skim milk powder stabilizes the cream and your beautifully piped or swirled design will hold its shape for hours.

For the design I piped, I used a Wilton #127 piping tip. You could just spread the cream on and use a spoon to swirl it decoratively.

When sliced, the cake is such a pretty surprise. The tartness of the rhubarb provides a lovely fresh contrast to the sweet cookies and cream.

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Click here to print recipe for Strawberry-Rhubarb-Biscoff-Icebox-Cake-1Download

Rhubarb Lemonade Gin Fizz

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Rhubarb isn’t just for pies and crisps. It makes a delightful addition to cocktails. If you’re not a rhubarb lover, it’s likely a textural issue. In this recipe, you make a simple syrup with the rhubarb. As the name implies, it’s really easy! Chopped rhubarb, water, sugar and lemon zest are simmered in a pot for about 10 minutes. Once the rhubarb has finished infusing, strain out the solids and keep the gorgeous pink syrup in a jar in the fridge for at least a month.

In addition to cocktails, the syrup would be delicious brushed onto cake layers for a strawberry cake, drizzled onto ice cream for a sundae or even just mixed into soda water for a refreshing drink.

While I don’t enjoy drinking cocktails, I adore styling and shooting them. This one was inspired by a recipe I found online for Fizzy Pink Rhubarb Lemonade. Thanks to Redpath Sugar for the spark.

When I was envisioning this shoot, I pictured two cocktails in the foreground with a gin bottle, out of focus in the background. The only gin we had in the house was in a black opaque bottle. That was not in keeping with the light and airy spring vibe I was trying to create. I found this gorgeous bottle at the LCBO.

My husband inquired as to why I bought more gin, when we already had a full bottle. He just smiled and nodded at my aesthetic explanation. Smiling and nodding is the secret to our 36 year marriage. Plus, he gets to drink the cocktail at the end of the shoot, so no complaints from him.

I used a vegetable peeler to make ribbons of rhubarb as a garnish. If you put them in a container of cold water overnight, they curl up into a pretty garnish. Or, you could just decorate the glass with a slice or wedge of lemon.

Click here to print recipe for Rhubarb-Lemonade-Gin-FizzDownload

Pistachio and Rhubarb Meringue Cake

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If you have been my friend here in this space for a while now, it’s no surprise that I get very excited when rhubarb season arrives. At last count, I had 15 rhubarb recipes on my blog. My youngest son planted a rhubarb garden in his backyard for me on Mother’s Day because I live in a condo. If you have ever planted rhubarb, you know it is the gift that keeps on giving!

The “layers” in this cake are meringue, with ground pistachios folded in for crunch. The meringue layers bake in a low oven (250°F) for about an hour. Then you turn the oven off and leave them there overnight, to dry out completely.

I got the idea for this cake from Sainsbury’s Magazine. Sainsburys is a UK based supermarket. Their website has so many inspiring ideas and recipes. I adapted the recipe very slightly.

The rhubarb is poached in a heavenly combo of orange juice, sugar and vanilla. This is the perfect make-ahead dessert. Bake the meringue layers and prepare the rhubarb filling a day ahead and then an hour before serving, whip heavy cream with some sour cream to make a tangy whipped cream and assemble.

A drizzle of rhubarb syrup and chopped pistachios finish off the cake.

My husband dislikes both rhubarb and meringue, so you can imagine his dismay when I told him what I was planning. He gamely tried a piece when I was finished shooting and discovered that, he did indeed like rhubarb and meringue. He reasoned that the two negatives somehow cancelled each other out. Who said that two wrongs don’t make a right?

This cake is a study in contrast. Meringue can be cloyingly sweet, but the tart rhubarb and tangy whipped cream really balance out all that sweetness. The meringue layers are a crunchy foil to all that soft whipped cream and silky rhubarb. While strawberries are a classic pairing with rhubarb, I love to combine it with raspberries. It is an unexpected combo that looks pretty and tastes yummy.

A slice of this cake is a bit messy but oh so addictive.

Click here to print recipe for Pistachio-and-Rhubarb-Meringue-CakeDownload

Strawberry Rhubarb Rugelach

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There are no shortage of Rugelach recipes recipes on this blog. Rugelach dough, rich with butter and cream cheese, is a great blank canvas. Then it’s time to have fun and create different flavour combos.

In 2016 I went wild with Cookie Butter Rugelach. The following year I baked Mindy Segal’s Cinnamon Brickle Rugelach. And last year fruit and nuts were featured in my Rhubarb-Raspberry Pistachio Rugelach.

This one starts with making your own strawberry rhubarb jam. Store-bought is fine, but if you have an extra 20 minutes, this jam is stellar. I discovered this recipe from Jake Cohen over at thefeedfeed. Sweet and tart with a little pop of acidity from rice wine vinegar, you will find yourself putting this s##t on everything.

This dough rolls out like a dream. No cracking or splitting. It’s like velvet.

Each little wedge gets rolled, starting at the fat end and ending at the point.

Brush with egg and bake.

While they are baking, crush some freeze dried strawberries into a fine powder and mix with granulated sugar. As soon as the rugelach are baked, spoon some strawberry sugar over the rugelach. Once they are cool, give them a second dusting. If you have never tried freeze dried berries, you must seek them out. Many natural/health food stores carry them, as do Trader Joes and Whole Foods. They are a concentrated punch of colour and flavour that will elevate any baked good.

Click here to print recipe for Strawberry-Rhubarb-RugelachDownload

Rhubarb Pistachio Loaf with Strawberry Glaze

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I suspect that toilet paper is not the only thing people are hoarding during the pandemic. Anyone else notice the glut of banana bread recipes floating around the web these days? It seems we have an excess of rotting bananas on our counters.

But, I’m here to change all that. Move over banana bread. There’s a new loaf in town. It’s rhubarb season and I couldn’t be more excited. We live in an age of instant gratification, where we can get practically anything we want, at any time. But not rhubarb! We must patiently wait for rhubarb season. But it’s so worth it. I adore that tart, sour flavour.

It’s rare to find rhubarb at the market with the leaves still attached. Most stores cut the leaves off before selling them because they’re poisonous. So when I find some with the leaves, I really geek out. Local rhubarb is just starting to arrive in Ottawa. This bunch is forced, which results in rosier coloured stalks.

I have made many loaves over the past few weeks, turning my husband, a former rhubarb hater, into a lover. My first version featured pecans. I switched to pistachios when I ran out of pecans, and I was thrilled with the results, both in taste and in looks.

This loaf comes together very quickly. Only one bowl and no mixer required. Check out the video.

The glaze is made with icing sugar, lemon juice and about a half an ounce of freeze-dried strawberries, which I ground into a powder. One ounce of freeze dried strawberries contains almost a pound of fresh strawberries, so this glaze really packs a punch of flavour.
Freeze dried fruit is not the same as dried fruit. Dried fruit is dehydrated and only about 75% of the water is removed. With freeze-drying, the fruit is placed into a vacuum chamber where the temperature is well-below freezing and 99% of the moisture can be removed from the fruit.

After glazing, I decorated the top of the top of the loaf with more pistachios and some freeze dried strawberry dust.

This is sure to become a new favourite in your house. This is a super moist loaf. I love it because it’s not too sweet. The tangy rhubarb flavour really shines through.

Click here to print recipe for Rhubarb -Pistachio-Loaf-with-Strawberry-Glaze-Download

Brown Butter Strawberry Rhubarb Ginger Hand Pies

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My love of rhubarb is no secret around here. There are almost 10 rhubarb recipes on this site. I eat rhubarb all year long. I must resort to frozen for 11 months, but then, in late May, fresh local rhubarb arrives in Ottawa and I can be found squealing with joy at the market. When rhubarb is this pretty, it deserves to be tied up with a bow.


Rhubarb is one of those polarizing ingredients. Most people either love it ot hate it. I think the haters object to the sourness and stringy texture. The key is to add just enough sugar so that edge is taken off, and you avoid that mouth puckering astringency. I find that baking the rhubarb in the oven helps to melt the rhubarb down into a silky smooth texture.

Pairing the rhubarb with other ingredients and flavours can also help to convert those haters. Strawberries and rhubarb are a classic pairing. I added some ginger for a bit of zing. It’s a surprisingly delicious flavour combo.

The pastry for these hand pies is most unusual. Created by cookbook author Abby Dodge, it uses browned butter and eggs. The browned butter adds a gorgeous nutty flavour. The eggs make the texture of the dough more like a cookie than a pie crust.

A sprinkling of coarse turbinado sugar adds sweetness and crunch.

Click here to print recipe for Brown Butter Strawberry-Rhubarb Ginger Hand PiesDownload

Havarti and Strawberry-Rhubarb Grilled Cheese

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This is a grilled cheese sandwich for grown-ups. For me, grilled cheese is a once in a while indulgence, when I feel the need a big food hug. The inspiration to add strawberry-rhubarb to my sandwich came from my daily breakfast habit. I roast a batch every week, as I like to mix a big spoonful of it into my morning yogurt and granola.

I made the bold decision to add a smear of the compote to my sandwich. I threw in a few slices of pickled jalapeno for fun.

I was surprised to see fresh rhubarb at the grocery store. It was certainly not local, as Ottawa is still burried under a ton of snow. It was undoubtedly “forced rhubarb”. Most of the year, I use frozen fruit. Rhubarb begs for the addition of sugar. I added 1/3 of a cup for a 6 cups of diced fruit.

The melting qualities of Havarti cheese made it an ideal candidate for this sandwich. While making a grilled cheese sandwich seems to be a fairly simple thing, here are a few tips that can take your sandwich from meh to yeah!

  1. Grate or thinly slice the cheese. If you opt for slicing, dip your knife in cold water before each slice. It prevents the knife from sticking to the cheese.
  2. Butter the outside of bread, rather than just putting butter in the pan. You will get a more even golden crust.
  3. Low and slow for the heat. Don’t be impatient and crank up the heat. You will just end up with buttered toast and unmelted cheese.
  4. Sandwich the strawberry-rhubarb and jalapeno between two thin layers of cheese. rather than just one cheese layer. It helps to hold the sandwich together better and makes for more even melting.
Click here to print recipe for Havarti and Strawberry-Rhubarb Grilled Cheese

Indulge your inner child today and make these. The outer layer of crunch yields to a center of melted goodness. The tart fruit and spicy jalapenos are a wonderful surprise.

Rhubarb and Pistachio Bundt Cake

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Pretty soon, we will be winging our way from rhubarb season straight into strawberry season. I am a little sad about it, my husband, less so! This pretty bundt cake was inspired by a brown butter strawberry-rhubarb glazed donut over at the charming blog, Adventures in Cooking. If you don’t know about Eva’s blog, you should check it out. It’s stunning.

Eva baked buttermilk donuts and dipped them into a pretty pink glaze, concocted from brown butter and pureed strawberries and rhubarb. I adapted her glaze and put it on this amazing rhubarb-pistachio bundt cake. Truthfully, the cake was almost faster to put together than the glaze, but taking the time to brown butter and roast the berries and rhubarb is worth it.

The first time I made the glaze, (yes, I ended up making it twice!) and poured it onto the cake, it was too thick and a bit fibrous from the strawberry seeds and stringy rhubarb pulp. So on the second go-round I strained the glaze through a fine mesh strainer and got the perfect consistency.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, the glaze is enriched with a bit of melted white chocolate to give it that extra oomph! You could, of course, make the cake plain, without the glaze, but why would you want to?

Studded with tangy rhubarb and crunchy pistachios, this cake is not too sweet. A little slice is the perfect afternoon pick-me-up.

Click here to print recipe for Rhubarb and Pistachio Bundt Cake.

Rhubarb Raspberry Meringue Tart

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If you were at the McCrae Avenue Farm Boy store in Ottawa last Saturday afternoon, and heard a high pitched squeal, that was me. For the past month I have been watching my instagram feed blow up with images of rhubarb creations. I wanted in on the fun, but there no rhubarb anywhere in my neck of the woods.

To be clear, this was not local rhubarb. It’s still too early for that here. It was that pretty pink “forced” rhubarb, which I love way more, because of that gorgeous hue. If you follow me on instagram you may have caught my teaser video.

Cooked rhubarb can be a bit mushy in texture, so I like to combine it with another fruit. Strawberries are the classic pairing, but I went rogue and opted for raspberries.

The rhubarb needs to be cooked before it can go into the tart. Roasting helps retain that pretty shade of pink. It needs sugar to tame the its astringency and some orange zest to enhance the flavour and aroma.
I drained the roasted rhubarb to get rid of any excess liquid, so that my tart bottom would not get soggy. Mary Berry does not like soggy bottoms. The raspberries get mixed in after the rhubarb is roasted.

I used a deep dish 8 inch tart pan, with a removable bottom, for a dramatic presentation. You could also use a springform pan. For fun, because that’s what my life has come to, I doubled the recipe and also made 6 mini tarts.As has been the case lately, this recipe took more than one attempt to get it just right. But I am happy to report that I nailed it on the second try!

In my first attempt I pre-baked the crust for 20 minutes, added the filling, topped it with a simple French meringue and baked it for a further 30 minutes. The delicate raspberries turned to mush, the bottom crust was soggy and the meringue turned brown and was really tough and chewy. 

On the second attempt I pre-baked the crust for almost 35 minutes, so that it was totally golden brown and gorgeously flaky and crispy. To solve the meringue dilemma, I turned to pastry wizard “Bravetart ” (aka Stella Parks) and she pointed me in the direction of a Swiss meringue.  The main difference between the two types of meringue is that in a Swiss meringue, you heat the egg whites and sugar first, before whipping them. In a French meringue, there is no pre-heating before whipping. A Swiss meringue whips up fluffier and more stable than its French cousin and it is safe to eat without additional cooking time. If you are curious and want to learn more, Stella wrote a great piece on Serious Eats about it.
I topped the pre-baked tart shells with the rhubarb-raspberry filling, topped them with the Swiss meringue, and baked them for a brief 10 minutes just to give the meringue a golden kiss. The raspberries maintained their integrity and the meringue was pillowy soft, fluffy and SOOOOO delicious, like the very best homemade marshmallows.
Perfect with a cup of tea!

Click here to print recipe for Rhubarb-Raspberry Meringue Tart.

 

Rhubarb Upside-down Cake

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3 slicesHappy Mother’s Day! I fully intended to post about this cake last week so you would have ample time to plan ahead and make this cake for your mom. But unfortunately, the ultimate mother (Mother Nature), did not cooperate. Local rhubarb only showed up at my market yesterdayfresh rhubarbThe hardest part about making this cake is arranging the rhubarb in this gorgeous chevron pattern. I have been going through a chevron phase for a few years now and I’m still not tired of it. I alternated the rows, cut side up and cut side down, for an ombre effect. Rhubarb Cable Knitbaked 1It really links like a chunky cable knit sweater! Sadly, with my poor fine motor skills, this is as close to knitting that I am ever likely to get. Arranging the rhubarb is really not that difficult to do. It just takes some planning, patience and precision. If that’s not for you, feel free to slice the rhubarb into 1/2 inch thick pieces and just scatter them on the bottom of the pan.

I created this video to walk you through the process.

If you were one of those kids that excelled at Leggo and puzzles, this will be a piece of cake for you. Once you get the main chevron pieces in place, you need to go back and fill in the top and bottom gaps with little wedges of rhubarb. For the record, I am spatially challenged, so if I can do it, anyone can. spooning batter Raw rhubarb is quite astringent, not to mention tough and fibrous. But blanket it with butter and brown sugar and it just it melts into silkiness in the oven.  The sour cream in the batter makes for a super moist cake.

Click here to print recipe for Rhubarb Upside-down Cake.

ready to serve 1

one slice