Baking has a tendency to settle into dull shades of brown and beige, so it pays especially to work with the rhythm of the seasons, using fruit and vegetables to lend life – and a splash of colour – to your recipes.
In summer there’s the blackcurrant crop, rolling into foraged blackberries and fat russet apples as the year creeps on. Other short-spanning crops include gooseberries, blood oranges and fuzzy-skinned peaches. My favourite though, and the one that keeps me going through January, is forced rhubarb.
The season for forced rhubarb typically runs from early January to March. Unlike its hardier, summer-harvested cousins, these early, thinner stalks blush bright pink and are perfectly tender without a hint of woodiness. They are less bitter, too, with a slight floral sharpness that sits beautifully against the sweetness of cakes and puddings.
And while I’m usually far more interested in the future of fruits and vegetable in my baking than in their roots in the soil, the backstory of forced rhubarb is particularly romantic: left to store up energy in the frost-bitten earth for two years, the rhubarb plants are then transported to pitch-black growing sheds where, nudged into life by the warmth, and in desperate pursuit of a light they’ll never reach, the stems sprint upwards into the dark. The result is elegant stalks flared gently outwards into a crown of anaemic-looking leaves – a triumph from darkness.
Rhubarb clafoutis
I was a seasoned cruncher of rhubarb-and-custard boiled sweets (I have the cracked tooth to prove it) long before I ever tasted my first stick of rhubarb. Here’s a slightly upgraded version of that perfect flavour combination …
Clafoutis batter is similar in composition to pancake batter, only richer (thanks to an ample measure of double cream) and lighter (due to less flour). It should emerge from the oven tender and quivering.
Serves 4-6
30g unsalted butter
2 large eggs
60g plain flour
100g caster sugar
150ml double cream
50ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch of salt
300g rhubarb, trimmed to 5-7cm lengths
Icing sugar, to serve
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and choose a baking tin or ovenproof dish roughly 15x22cm.
2 Melt the butter over a low heat. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the flour and the sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the double cream, milk, vanilla extract, salt and half of the melted butter. Whisk to combine.
3 Grease the dish with the remaining melted butter and arrange the rhubarb in it. Pour over the batter. Bake for 35-40 minutes. The clafoutis is ready when puffy, golden and barely quivering. Don’t worry if it sinks as it cools – this is normal. Serve warm, dredged with icing sugar.
Rhubarb and apple crumble with hazelnut crust
There are as many crumble recipes as there are bakers. You might add a signature scattering of cinnamon, ground almonds, or even black pepper; the crumble itself may be fine, coarse or rubbly, rich with butter or lean and floury. More traditional fruit fillings compete alongside those made with stone fruit, berries and even tropical fruit.
With that in mind, this recipe makes no claims to supplant your own signature recipe or to be the “best” or “ultimate” crumble (if such a thing ever could exist) – it’s just a simple dish, sharpened with rhubarb and topped with a sweet hazelnut crumble.
Serves 6
4 Cox or Braeburn apples
200g rhubarb
80g caster sugar
3 tbsp plain flour
For the crust
75g unsalted butter, cubed
150g plain flour
60g soft light brown sugar
50g hazelnuts, roasted and chopped
A large pinch of salt
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and have to hand a deep 20-25cm ovenproof dish or casserole.
2 Peel and core the apples and cut into segments no thicker than 1cm or so. Cut the rhubarb into 5cm lengths. Place the apple and rhubarb in a large bowl and toss with the sugar and flour until the fruit is well coated. Transfer the filling to the oven dish.
3 For the crumble topping, rub the butter chunks into the flour using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, hazelnuts and salt, then spoon the crumble over the fruit in a thick layer.
4 Bake for 35-45 minutes, until the fruit is tender, the filling is bubbling through the crust and the crumble is crisp and golden.
