Rhubarb Cream Cheese Cornmeal Muffins

rhubarb_muffins

It’s getting a bit difficult for me to create yet another rhubarb recipe after having already included several in my blog. Nonetheless, I came up with this cornmeal muffin idea in a delightfully whimsical manner.

I knew I wanted to cook some rhubarb from the garden so I started daydreaming and burrowing my face into the fur of one of my Labradors. If you are a dog owner, you know what I’m talking about! “Oh, you smell like cornmeal behind your ear…” Yes, the light bulb went off! Another strange coincidence was when I opened my food recipe journal and the first thing I saw was this old wrinkled handwritten recipe that read “Blueberry cornbread muffins.” I’m not kidding you here. It must be a 12 year-old-recipe because I used to hand copy recipes from food magazines just after I came to Canada for the sake of improving my English! I don’t remember ever having baked it though. Haha, it’s really funny… it appeared at just the right time to give me a clue as to what recipe I should share next.

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Rhubarb Cream Cheese Cornmeal Muffins

Makes 12 small muffins

2 cups rhubarb, cut into ½ inch pieces

6 tablespoons cane sugar

½ package (250g) cream cheese, room temperature and cut into cubes

¼ cup sugar

1¾ cups cake flour (I used this instead of all-purpose because it ran out)

¾ cup cornmeal (fine textured)

2/3 cup cane sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/3 cups 2% milk

1 large whole egg plus 2 egg whites

2 tablespoons canola oil

Place rhubarb and the sugar in a small saucepan over medium high heat, cook to dissolve sugar and continue until just before the rhubarb loses its shape. Strain the excess juice for another use (see below). Let cool.

In a bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda well in a bowl. In a separate mixing bowl, combine all remaining ingredients except cream cheese and whisk until smooth.  Then, pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Mix just until all the ingredients are moist. Add the rhubarb and lightly mix with a spatula.

Pour the batter into a muffin cup-lined tin and spoon a big dollop of the cream cheese into each muffin cup. Bake until golden brown, for about 20 minutes. A cake tester inserted into the centre should come out clean. Let cool.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Store any leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate.

 

Mint Tea

A bunch of mint leaves

Hot water

Wash the mint and cut into 1 inch pieces. Place the mint in a teapot (a jar in my case), pour hot water over top and steep for a few minutes. Strain into individual cups.

 

Rhubarb Refresher

Ice cubes

Extracted rhubarb juice (from above recipe)

Dash of lemon juice

Carbonated water or club soda and/or rum!

A sprig of mint leaves

Freestyle to accommodate whatever one’s heart desires.

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Rhubarb Custard Ice Cream

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I realized that there was no better time to create this recipe than when my neighbour’s daughter, who lives on a farm, handed me two and a half dozen colourful eggs that she had just gathered. Immediately I thought about turning them into omelettes with chunks of goat cheese and chives, adding them to pancakes, making a pudding… oh, yes, there seemed to be too many possibilities.

However, last year, when I wrote the rhubarb tart recipe, I already had a special ice cream recipe in mind to introduce when my rhubarb returned. So today, I finally made a custard ice cream mixture and combined it with my long awaited seasonal treat: rhubarb. As I had been itching for the rhubarb stalks to become tall enough, it was the perfect timing. There is something irresistible about this combination, which features just the right tartness combined with a sweet, creamy egginess. This ice cream will make a special dessert to share with my friend who recently invited us to her dinner party, as she is quite passionate about rhubarb!

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Rhubarb Custard Ice Cream

This recipe involves creating three elements: the rhubarb stew, the custard ice cream mixture, and the honey ginger cookies.. Churn the ice cream a few hours before serving time and freeze to achieve the best texture—this will allow each component to stand on its own instead of being totally absorbed together. It may sound like a lot to accomplish, but it’s really not. All you must do is organize your time wisely and then it’s as easy as pie!

Makes about 1 quart

Rhubarb Stew

3 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch pieces

¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon cane sugar

1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Place the rhubarb and sugar in a small saucepan and cook over medium high heat until no shape is visible. You can agitate the rhubarb pieces here and there to help dissolve. Add the lemon juice and stir.

Cool, transfer to a container and refrigerate overnight.

 

Custard Ice Cream Mixture

2 cups whole milk

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped

6 large egg yolks

½ cup plus 1 tablespoon cane sugar

1 cup whipping cream (Avalon’s organic one is my favourite)

Bring the milk and vanilla pod with pulp to a gentle boil in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove from the heat, cover and let sit for 10 minutes to infuse the milk.

While waiting, prepare a large bowl filled with ice cubes that can hold the finished custard mixture in a small bowl. This will speed up the cooling process. Set aside a small bowl.

Whisk the egg yolks in a medium bowl and add sugar; continue to whisk until well combined. Whilst whisking, gently add a quarter of the hot milk into the yolks. Continue to whisk, and add the rest of the milk in a steady stream. Discard the pod. Return the egg yolk mixture to the saucepan.

Bring the mixture to a gentle boil over medium heat and whisk continuously until thickened, for about 5 minutes. Do not over boil. Strain the mixture through a sieve into the prepared small bowl. Set the bowl on the ice cubes. Add some water to the ice bath. Stir constantly until cool.

Add the whipping cream and stir to combine, then refrigerate overnight.

 

Honey Ginger Cookies

1/3 cup butter, room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tablespoon honey

½ teaspoon ginger juice extracted from a piece of grated ginger

2/3 cup rolled oats, milled finely in a food processor

1 cup cake flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

A pinch of salt

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together; set aside. Cream the butter in a large bowl with a beater. Add the sugar and stir well until fluffy. While beating, add the egg, honey, and ginger juice and combine well.

Switch to a spatula, add the oat and flour mixture and combine until flour is not visible. The mixture will be very soft, but no worries. Try to form it into a ball and store in a Ziploc bag; flatten to make a disk shape and place in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 320F. Flour the work surface and roll the dough with a rolling pin to 1/3 inch thickness, trying to form a square shape. Using a knife, cut into 2 inch squares. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake until golden, for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Cool and store in an airtight container.

Next day, place the rhubarb container in the freezer while you churn the custard mixture according to the manufacturer’s instructions. By individually freezing custard and rhubarb before layering, it will be easy to achieve the separation between the two.

Transfer half the custard ice cream to the bottom of a large container, and dot with the half portion of semi-frozen rhubarb. You can reserve some cookies to serve on the side of the finished ice cream. Break the rest of the cookies into 1 inch pieces and stud half of them between the rhubarb and into the custard. Repeat another layer on top. Flatten the surface and freeze for a few hours before serving.

 

Rhubarb Bars

rhubarb bars

Okay, I promise that this is going to be the last post for rhubarb desserts since I already posted many lately, and I should probably leave my rhubarb plants alone to recuperate for next year so I can bake all these rhubarb goodies all summer long! But who can resist those intense ruby red stalks?

These bars are perfect to take on trips, thanks to their solid texture. We ate them on a ferry and brought them to a picnic too. As Deborah Madison suggests, you can use any kind of jam to add variety.

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Rhubarb Bars

9 x 9 square pan

110g salted butter

½ cup cane sugar

¼ cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

11/2 cups unbleached white flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup mixed chopped almonds, pecans, walnuts and rolled oats

¾ to 1 cup rhubarb jam or more (recipe below)

Extra butter and flour for greasing and dusting the pan

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9 x 9 pan and dust with some flour. Remove excess flour. Alternately, line the pan with a sheet of parchment paper.

Cream the butter, add the sugar gradually, and beat until fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, and continue stirring until the egg incorporates. Add the dry ingredients except the nuts mixture.

Leaving ¾ of the dough, press the rest evenly in the prepared pan.

Spread the rhubarb jam in a thick layer over the dough.

Mix the nuts into the reserved dough, and spread over the jam layer.

Bake about 40 to 45 minutes.

Let cool and cut into squares.

Adapted from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

 

Rhubarb Jam

I make this jam thinking of crisp cold winter mornings when I spread it generously over toast smeared with cream cheese, all served with a warm pot of tea or coffee.

Makes 7 x 250 ml jars

2 kg rhubarb, cut into 1 inch pieces

850g cane sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1 small lemon)

Place all the ingredients in a heavy bottomed pot and cook until the rhubarb loses its shapes and becomes thick, about 1 hour or so.

Bring plenty of water to boil in a large pot that is taller than the jars. Sterilize the jars, lids and screw bands for a few minutes. Let them dry.

Pour the jam into the sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch from the brim. Wipe any spilled jam from the brim. Screw on bands snugly but do not over tighten them. Make sure that lids are not damaged or bent so that they seal properly during the canning process.

Place a heavy tea towel in the pot to keep the jars from having direct contact with the bottom. Submerge the jars. Make sure that there is enough water to cover them by at least 1 inch.

Boil for about 25 minutes.

Remove the jars without tilting, place them on a tea towel and cool undisturbed for 24 hours. In the mean time, remove the screw bands, wipe and dry them and replace on jars.

You can test the jars to find out if they are sealed properly. You can lift the whole jar by grabbing only the lids if they are properly sealed.

The preserves last about one year or longer. Refrigerate once opened.