Category Archives: Puddings

Rhubarb and Strawberry Crumble

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RHUBARB AND STRAWBERRY CRUMBLErhubarb and strawberry crumbleWe’ve now got a fair amount of rhubarb and so we decided to do something with it and make a crumble. In the end, we made two: the first with rhubarb and strawberries in an electric oven and the second with rhubarb and apples in the bread oven.

The crumble can be prepared in advance and then cooked before serving but it is a good idea to only add the crumble topping to the fruit just before baking to stop it going soggy.

Rhubarb and Strawberry Crumble
Serves 6
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Prep Time
20 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
50 min
Prep Time
20 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
50 min
Ingredients
  1. 600g of rhubarb
  2. 400g strawberries
  3. 50g brown sugar
  4. 140g plain flour
  5. 100g oats
  6. 120g brown sugar
  7. 120g butter (at room temperature), cut into pieces
Instructions
  1. Cut the rhubarb and into small chunks and the strawberries to a similar size.
  2. Heat the rhubarb pieces in a pan with a splash of water and 50g of sugar for 3-5 minutes and then add the strawberries.
  3. Cook until soft.
  4. Taste the juice and add more sugar if necessary.
  5. Separate the fruit from the syrup.
  6. To make the crumble for the topping, mix together the flour, oats, sugar and butter together with your fingers to make crumbs.
  7. Transfer the fruit to a baking tin with a few tablespoons of the syrup and top with the crumble mixture.
  8. Cook in a hot oven (200ºC) for 30 minutes. You can always finish it off under the grill to brown the top if necessary.
Variation
  1. Substitute cooking apples for the strawberries and cook at the same time as the rhubarb, adding more sugar if necessary.
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Cherry Clafoutis

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Cherry clafoutis

cherry clafoutisCherry clafoutis is a traditional French cake from the Limousin region of France. The classic recipe is made with a pancake or flan batter. You can either use self-raising flour or plain flour and baking powder. Traditionally, black cherries are used in the clafoutis but you can also make it with most other fruits. It also works well with red cherries, plums, pears or soft summer fruits (e.g. raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, etc.).

The word clafoutis comes from the Occitan verb clafir which means to fill.  If fruit other than cherries are used then the clafoutis becomes a flaugnarde. Flaugnarde comes from the Occitan word flaunhard which means “soft” or “downy”. In the traditional French dish, the cherry stones are not removed as they contain an element called amygdalin which is found in almonds and they therefore add an almond flavour to the cake. It is your choice entirely whether you leave the stones in or not. Personally I prefer to take them out.

The cherries are softened for 5 minutes in the oven before the batter is poured over and the cake is baked.

It would also to be possible to cook this cake on the stove if you don’t have an oven. For a gluten-free version, see this gluten-free pear cake.

BATTER INGREDIENTS:
300ml milk
3 eggs
60g plain flour + 1/2 teaspoon baking powder OR 60g self-raising flour
60g sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHERRIES:
300 cherries, pitted
1 tablespoon sugar
icing sugar for dusting the cake with
butter or oil for greasing the cake tin

METHOD:
Heat the oven to 180ºC – 200ºC.
Beat the eggs with a whisk. Beat in the milk and then add the flour (and baking powder if using), sugar and vanilla extract and mix well.

Grease a cake tin and then arrange the cherries on the bottom of the tin. Cook the cherries in the oven for 5 minutes to soften.

Pour over the batter mix and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Check the cake after 15 minutes and turn the tin through 180º so that it cooks evenly.

Take out of the oven once the cake has cooked and leave to cool slightly. Dust the top with icing sugar. The cake is best served warm with cream if you like.

 

Ricotta berry mousse

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ricotta mousse with summer fruit and berries

Ricotta berry mousse

I made this with some summer berries (blackberries and raspberries) and some of the first ricotta that I made this year from milking the neighbour’s goats.

INGREDIENTS:
250g ricotta cheese
berries
125ml single cream
sugar to taste

Save some berries back for decoration. Blend the remaining berries.
Combine the ricotta, cream and sugar in a bowl and mix well.Swirl the berry mixture through the cheese and cream and decorate with the berries.
Chill before serving.

Gluten-free pear cake

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Gluten-free pear cake

pears2

Gluten-free pear cake

This gluten-free pear cake uses ground almonds instead of flour. The cake is cooked on the top of the stove so is ideal if you don’t have an oven. I wanted to try baking a cake in a frying pan so that we wouldn’t have to light the bread oven to make something sweet. I looked on Internet and found the idea for a recipe on clevercook. The cake had the added advantage of being completely gluten-free and that way I could use our own almonds instead of flour.

My idea was to follow the principle of a tarte tatin, using the pears we had picked last winter, and pour over the batter mixture. The pears are a winter variety and so are quite robust. The pears had been halved before freezing so I just cut them into smaller pieces.

I heated them through in a deep-sided frying pan until soft and the juice had evaporated.

I then lined the deep frying pan with greaseproof paper, brushed it with sunflower oil and sprinkled it with brown sugar. I put the pear pieces on top and poured over the batter.

I covered the pan and cooked over a low heat for about 20 minutes. Once it had cooked all the way through, I turned it out upside down onto a cooling rack. If you weren’t pouring the batter over fruit and wanted to turn the cake while it was cooking, you could turn the cake after 10 minutes so that it cooked evenly on both sides.

pears1

Pear cake in a frying pan

Here is the recipe for the cake batter:

INGREDIENTS:
20g butter
3 eggs
90g brown sugar
160g ground almonds
1 teaspoon cornflour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons orange juice
grated rind of an orange

In a food processor, blitz the butter and then add the eggs, one at a time. Mix in all the dry ingredients and blitz again. Add the orange juice and rind and blitz for a final time.

Pear tarte tatin

Gluten-free pear cake

 

Strawberry ice-cream

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Egg-free strawberry ice-cream

Egg-free strawberry ice-cream

With our three laying hens, our egg production can’t keep up with the strawberries so I decided to try out different ways of making ice-cream using some of the goat milk from the neighbour’s goats that I milk each day. I found the perfect recipe in “Ices: The Definitive Guide“. The recipe comes from Mars. Marshall’s Book of Ices (1885) and uses cornflour to thicken the mixture rather than an egg-based custard or thick cream.

INGREDIENTS:
4 tablespoons cornflour
90g granulated sugar
500ml goat milk
strawberries
brown sugar
balsamic vinegar

METHOD:In a bowl, combine the cornflour and granulated sugar. Pour in enough milk so that the mixture has the consistency of thin cream.

Heat the rest of the milk in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Gradually pour in the cornflour mixture, stirring well. Bring back up to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes, stirring all the time. Leave to cool.

Put the strawberries, a couple of dessertspoons of brown sugar and a splash of balsamic vinegar in a bowl. Squeeze them through your fingers to break them up and mix well.

Mix enough of the cornflour mixture and the strawberries together to taste . Pour into an ice-cream maker. If you don’t have an ice-cream maker, put the mixture in a container in the freezer and whisk every hour to stop ice crystals forming.