Rhubarb Sauce Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Rhubarb sauce cookies make the most of tart spring rhubarb in the most deliciously portable way. Their subtle pink hints at the lovely rhubarb flavor inside. 

I’m pretty sure I might have told part of this story before, but when we lived in Paris 20-odd years ago, on a visit in our last year there my sharp-eyed mother-in-law pointed out that we had rhubarb growing in the front garden. It was hiding under some other big green leafy bushes. Life is full of small regrets and that I missed two springs of fresh homegrown rhubarb is one of mine.

Since then I’ve tried to make up for it by buying rhubarb when I can. It makes me think of Fiona, she of celebrated wheat bread and sausage roll fame, and I know she’d like these cookies. This month’s Creative Cookie Exchange theme is Mothers Day so, while Fiona was not my actual mother, or even my husband’s mother, she treated her stepson like a son and me like a daughter. Like most grandmothers, she thought our girls were such fun to spend time with and she was especially good at making storybooks come alive. They loved it when she did "voices." Her classroom full of students were all her beloved children and they'd come back regularly to visit long after they had moved on. She was a special lady.

Ingredients – Makes 2 1/2 dozen
1/2 cup or 115g butter
1 cup or 200 sugar
1 large egg
2 cups or 250g flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 190g thick rhubarb sauce

For the rhubarb sauce:
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
12 oz or 340g rhubarb
1/8 cup or 25g sugar – or more to taste
Good pinch salt

Optional for serving: powdered sugar

Method
Trim the ends off the rhubarb, cut into chunks. Combine with the sugar and the orange zest and juice in a pan and gently cook for 5-10 minutes until the rhubarb begins to soften.

Cook a bit longer, until some of the juice has evaporated. You want a nice thick spoonable sauce. Set aside to cool.

Note: You won't use it all of the sauce in this recipe since it makes more than one cup. Stir the balance through some yogurt or serve it on pancakes. Its bright fresh taste will have you making the sauce again just to eat.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your cookie sheet by lining it with baking parchment or silicone liners.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisking brings in air, much as sifting does so you can sift them together if you prefer.

In a larger bowl, cream together butter and sugar until they are light yellow and fluffy. Add in the egg and beat again until blended.

Add in the rhubarb sauce and mix till blended.

Now beat in the flour mixture briefly until just blended. Don't over beat.

Drop by spoonfuls or a cookie scoop, onto your prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the first batch is just starting to turn golden around the edges.

Leave to cool on the pan for a few minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat until all the cookies are baked.

Once cool, sprinkle with a little powdered sugar, if desired.

Enjoy!

Needing some inspiration for Mothers Day? We've got some lovely cookies for you!

• Brown Sugar Maple Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cherries from The Spiced Life
• Candied Flower Shortbread Cookies from Live... Bake... Love...
• Chocolate Chip Cookies (Baked) from Baking in Pyjamas
• Classic Spritz Cookies from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Coconut Cookies from Flours and frostings
• Crystallized Ginger Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies from 2 Cookin' Mamas
• Mint Chip Chocolate Cookies from A Baker's House
• Oats and Nuts Cookies from Basic N Delicious
• Rhubarb Sauce Cookies from Food Lust People Love
• White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks

Creative Cookie Exchange is hosted by Laura of The Spiced Life. We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life). We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!

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Apple Rhubarb Strawberry Pie - Happy Pi(e) Day

Juicy apples, sweet strawberries and tart rhubarb, tossed with sugar and baked, bubble out pinkly through the flakey pie crust, saying “Slice me, eat me. Go, go get your fork!” 

I have no idea what age I was when I first learned about pi, that is to say π or the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which turns out to be a number that starts 3.1415 and goes on forever and ever and ever in a pattern-less, never-repeating type way. We certainly never celebrated Pi Day that I can recall and, for once my memory hasn’t failed me because according to a little quick research (Thanks, Wikipedia!) Pi Day was first officially celebrated in 1988, more than two years after I had already graduated from university and had deliberately stopped thinking about math concepts in any concerted way.

This a special year to celebrate Pi Day, because today, as happens only once in each century, is 3/14/15 - at least in the US way of writing dates month first - so I am delighted to join our pi and pie loving organizer, Terri from Love and Confections and 18 fellow food bloggers to bring you 20 fabulous pies.

(P.S. If you set an alarm for 9:26:53 a.m and p.m. you can celebrate twice today to the ninth place! This may call for a cocktail!)

A note about the fruit amounts: All in all, I used a little more than two pounds or one kilo of fruit before peeling, hulling, etc. If you have less rhubarb, add more apples or strawberries. How much of each is completely flexible but I’ll give you my amounts as a guideline. Do keep in mind if you go with all rhubarb, you are probably going to need more sugar though. That stuff is pretty tart.

Ingredients
Double recipe of shortcrust pastry – from this link here or use your own favorite crust recipe for a two-crust pie.
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 apples (about 11 oz or 315g)
3 long stalks rhubarb (about 14 oz or 400g)
1/2 punnet strawberries (about 11 2/3 oz or 330g)
3/4 cup or 150g sugar plus a little extra to sprinkle on the pie before baking
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1-2 tablespoons milk

Method
Make the dough for the pastry and divide it into two balls, one slightly bigger than the other. Wrap them in cling film and put them in the refrigerator.

Peel and chop your apples and toss them in a big bowl with the lemon juice to keep them from turning brown.

Cut the brown ends off the rhubarb, if any, and cut the stalks into chunks.

Hull your strawberries and halve the big ones. Little ones can be left whole.

Pile the rhubarb and strawberries into the apple bowl and pour in the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Stir well.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Remove the bigger ball of dough from the refrigerator and roll it out in a circle. Fold it over your rolling pin and ease it into your 8 in or 20cm pie plate – not deep dish.

Dock it with the tip of a sharp knife or the tines of a fork.

Add in the sugared fruit and dot the top with the butter in several small pieces.

I forgot the butter in this shot, but not in the pie!

Roll out the second ball of dough in a circle and fit it on top the pie.  I am a fan of shortcrust so I trim very little of the excess and fold the rest under the edges with the bottom crust and then crimp the dough all the way around the pan. If you want to trim yours more and then just stick the bottom and top together by crimping, that works too. Use a sharp knife to cut a few slits in the top to let the steam out.

Brush the crust with the milk and sprinkle it with a little sugar.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 50-55 minutes or until the crust is golden all over and a little juice is bubbling out the slits in the top crust.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to Terri from Love and Confections for hosting this fun event! 

Twenty fabulous pies to celebrate! Come join us!  

• Apple Pear Pie with Crumble Topping from Baking and Creating with Avril
• Apple Rhubarb Strawberry Pie from Food Lust People Love
• Buffalo Chicken Shepherd's Pie from Healthy. Delicious.
• Chocolate Mousse Pie from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chocolate Silk Pie from Famished Fish, Finicky Shark
• Coconut-Pistachio Pie from The Spiffy Cookie
• Curried Lamb Potpie from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Fresh Strawberry Pie from Taste Cook Sip
• Hillbilly Apple Pie from My Catholic Kitchen
• ‎Kentucky Derby Pie from Kelli's Kitchen
• Mixed Berry Slab Pie from Making Miracles
• Peach-Blueberry Pie from The Redhead Baker
• Salted Honey Pie from girlichef
• Sicilian Ricotta Pie from Cake Duchess
• S'Mores Brownie Pie from Cheese Curd in Paradise
• Strawberry Daiquiri Pie from Love and Confections
• Thin Mint Pie from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Top Secret Derby Pie from A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• Triple Berry Pot Pie from {I Love} My Disorganized Life
• Vegetable Pot Pie from Sew You Think You Can Cook

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Rhubarb Syrup

This bright pink rhubarb syrup is great in cocktail, drizzled over ice cream and pound cake or even spooned over crepes. 

Rhubarb syrup is easy to make and it goes down even easier in a cocktail. Best of all, when refrigerated, it preserves the beauty and flavor of rhubarb much longer than the cut stalks could stay fresh.

Ingredients to yield about 2/3 cup or 155ml of syrup (This recipe can be easily doubled.)
2 cups, loosely packed, or 230g chopped rhubarb
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1/2 cup or 120ml water
Pinch salt

Method
Combine the rhubarb, sugar, water and salt in a pot and bring to a boil.

Lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the fruit is soft and the liquid has thickened slightly.

Set a fine-meshed strainer or a coarse strainer lined with cheesecloth over a large measuring cup.

Pour the rhubarb into the strainer and allow the syrup to drip down into the bowl.

You can press the solids with a rubber spatula to squeeze more liquid out or just leave it some place cool for an hour or two to make sure it has dripped completely.

Decant your syrup into a clean bottle and store it in the refrigerator.

I fold the leftover rhubarb solids through some whipped cream, adding raspberries for more color and a drizzle of the syrup for a lovely rhubarb raspberry fool. You can also spread it on toast.

The syrup has many uses but my favorite is a rhubarb fool cocktail with a drizzle of cream and orange zest.

Enjoy!

Fresh Rhubarb Muffins for #MuffinMonday

Fresh rhubarb is tart and wonderful in baked goods, from pies to crumbles to muffins. These will start your morning off right! 

Twenty-one years ago today, we were enjoying a warm summer day in Paris and the festivities of the Bastille Day holiday, counting down the days to the scheduled caesarean section that would bring our second daughter into the world. Since she was being born in France, I had tried to convince the doctor that Le Quatorze Juillet would be an appropriate day for her birthday, so we could celebrate her and La Belle France every year with fireworks, picnics and overhead aerial displays. But he wasn’t having any of it, the party pooper. What’s the point of being able to choose your child’s birthday if you can’t pick a fun date, right? As it turns out, we moved away from Paris before she turned two years old so the 14th of July lost significance in our daily lives. But it still comes to mind every year as we prepare to celebrate our daughter's birthday.

Reminiscing about Paris also makes me think of rhubarb. I’ve told the story briefly here, about the late discovery of rhubarb in our Paris garden. Ever since that time, I’ve made every effort to take advantage of it when I see it in my market or nearby grocery store. Rhubarb is the best and it’s one of our favorite things.

Ingredients
2 cups or 250g flour
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup or 160ml canola or other light oil
3/4 cup or 180ml buttermilk (or almost 3/4 cup milk plus 2 teaspoons vinegar)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup or 130g chopped fresh rhubarb

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C.  Put liners in the muffin cups or grease them well with butter or non-stick spray.

Cut your rhubarb into pieces, about 1cm or 1/2 inch wide. Set aside the prettiest 12 for decorating the tops before baking.

Whisk together your flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.

Add caption

Whisk together the canola, buttermilk, vanilla and eggs in another bowl, until combined well.

Add caption

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. There should be a little dry flour still showing. Gently fold in your sliced rhubarb.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups.   Decorate each with a pink piece of rhubarb.

Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Add caption

Enjoy! To my French friends, I also say, Bonne Fête Nationale!

And a very happy birthday to my good friend, Margaret, who does indeed share a birthday with France. I'm sure the fireworks are just for you, MJ!

Two more rhubarb recipes for your enjoyment! 

Rhubarb Nectarine Puff Pastry Tarts

Not the prettiest, but this one is delicious and easy!

Rhubarb Apple Ginger Crumble

Rhubarb Nectarine Puff Pastry Tarts

Many years ago, we lived just south of Paris and were blessed with a large garden, most unusual, even in our neighborhood, because of the way our city block was shaped.  The front garden was wide, about 40 feet across, narrowing down by almost 20 feet by the time you got behind the house to the backyard, a large pie-piece shaped garden with the tip cut off.   In the front, we had all the hazelnuts we could eat, courtesy of the left side neighbor, Madame Coucou, so named by us because she would call to me from her porch, “Cou cou!”  In the back, we had a fabulous sweet cherry tree that produced more cherries than we could possibly use, no matter that we ate them steadily and made jam and pies and cherry bounce.   We gave them away to friends and neighbors.  What I didn’t know until our last year there, was that we also had rhubarb in the front yard.  My in-laws came to visit and pointed it out, all hidden under a large bush, so low to the ground.   How could we have missed it!  Rhubarb is one of our favorite things.  My excitement at the discovery was tinged with sadness for the years of missed crops.

Now every summer we eagerly await rhubarb season, when a few choice stalks can be purchased and pie can be baked.  Often it is apple and rhubarb, but occasionally sweet yellow nectarines also make their irresistible appearance.   Summer means a hot kitchen so cooking the fruit on the stove and quick baking puff pastry lets me crank the oven up and then turn it off rather than baking a whole fruit pie for an hour or more.  You could do this with any seasonal fruit.

Ingredients
3 stalks rhubarb
2 ripe nectarines
3-4 tablespoons vanilla sugar or normal sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Good pinch salt
2 sheets puff pastry (about 8in x 8in or 20cm x 20cm)
1/2 cup or 120ml whipping cream

Method
Preheat to 400°F or 200°C.  Fold your sheets of puff pastry in half and then in half again.

Cut around the square with a sharp knife or kitchen scissors to create a circle – or, honestly, leave it square if you want.  I just think the circles are prettier.  But do trim the edges off all around.  Freshly cut puff pastry puffs up way more successfully.

Use a large round cookie cutter to score a circle in the middle of the puff pastry.  Do not cut all the way through.

Dock the middle of the circles with the tines of a fork.   Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry has puffed up and is golden all over.  Meanwhile, chop the rhubarb into chunks.

Cut the nectarines in half and remove the pits.  Cut in chunks.

Put the fruit in a small pot with the 3 tablespoons sugar and salt.

Cook for about 10 minutes or until the rhubarb is completely softened and the nectarines are cooked.  Taste and add the extra sugar if necessary.  Set aside to cool.

When the puff pastry is done, remove from the oven and allow to cool.  Cut around the scored circle with a sharp pointy knife and then gently press it down, creating a hole for the fruit.  Set aside.

When you are ready to serve, whip the cream and fill the pastry shells with fruit and then top with whipped cream.

Enjoy!