Don’t tell any body: we are addicted. To Rhubarb. Sigh… This fabulous perennial vegetable is now available throughout most of the year thanks to hothouses. The big difference being that out-of-season rhubarb is less tart and a brighter red. The leaves of the plant are inedible to humans as they contain amongst others high amounts of oxalic acid. The plant has a longstanding history of being used medicinally before it was cultivated for culinary purposes.

Details

Servings

4

Prep time

20 minutes

Baking time

15 minutes

Difficulty

Easy

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs (split)

  • 75g whole cane sugar

  • 90g flour (plus extra for dusting the form)

  • 3-4 tbsp milk

  • 1 large stalk of rhubarb* (or 2 small ones)

  • ⅓ tsp vanilla powder

  • ¼ tsp salt

  • 1 tbsp coconut oil (plus extra for the form)

Directions

  • Oil and flour the form **. Set aside until step 7.
  • Take the egg yolks and and put them into a bowl together with 60g of the sugar. Beat until pale – but do not cream them.
  • Add the milk and oil, then sift in the flour and stir until it is all well combined and the batter looks like a very thick custard. Set aside and let the mixture rest.
  • Chop the rhubarb into small pieces (ca 2cm). Transfer to a bowl, add vanilla powder and the remainder of the sugar (15g). Set aside and let it rest while you whisk the egg whites stiff.
  • Beat the egg whites with the salt to stiff peaks. Start at a low speed, go up to medium and finally beat at the highest setting for about a minute.
  • This is a good moment to turn on your oven and have it pre-heat to 180 °C.
  • Carefully mix the egg whites under the batter and pour the entire mixture into your prepared form.
  • Arrange the rhubarb atop and drizzle over the fluids. Bake for 15 minutes, take out and let rest before removing it from the tin.

* We love rhubarb but if you don’t feel the same way you can replace with any other stone fruit ~ like plums, cherries, apricots or peaches ~ depending on your sweet tooth you might want to use less sugar for the marination. Apples, pears and pineapple work great, too.

Here are the exact things we used:

  • Whole cane sugar: we used a lighter type for this recipe
  • Eggs: for us there is only those from the local farmer, free range chickens living a happy and healthy life
  • Milk: fresh & unpasteurised from the Melktap of Kaasboerderij Captein
  • Wheat flour: we used patentbloem from De Vlijt
  • Coconut oil: we used Machandel
  • Rhubarb: we bought ours locally from a farmer
  • Vanilla powder: we used Jacob Hooy
  • Salt: we used Dutch Waddenzout naturel
  • ** Baking form: Our vintage baking form is from Fackelmann and measures only 16 cm in diameter.
  • Placemats: vintage
  • Plate: ASA À Tble