Pineapple Upside-Down Cakes

Hey, Internet! Long time no see! Life got a little busy there, and the blog took a back seat to summertime and then work-related priorities, but now that it's winter again  and the holiday season is upon us, the kitchen seems like the best (read: warmest) place to be. So here we are. 

Also, if you squint real hard at the background of some of these pictures, you can meet my new oven. The last one and I parted on less-than-friendly terms - and on Thanksgiving Eve, no less, in the middle of pre-heating for the apple pie I was supposed to bring to the family dinner. Luckily I was able to secure a back-up oven, so Thanksgiving wasn't ruined, but it was close! Anyway, the nice delivery men from Sears had my new one set up within 48 hours of the break-down, and now I have a convection option and a fifth burner, so everything ended happily enough. But I digress.

It was only a matter of time before this classic came to the kitchen. This week, I took the traditional Betty Crocker recipe for Pineapple Upside-Down Cake and gave it the 4 oz. treatment. 

First, I coated the bottom of the jars with melted butter and brown sugar, then added the fruit. My jars were a little smaller than the pineapple slices, so I cut the rings into sections and placed them in the bottom of the jars as best I could. Next time, I'll use crushed pineapple here for better coverage and an easier fit.

During this recipe, I had the rare opportunity to open a new can of baking powder. Considering this only happens once every few years, I wanted to be sure to document the occasion.

A different baker might decide to combine the dry ingredients first, then cream the shortening and sugars, add egg and vanilla, and then gradually mix in the dry ingredients; however, Betty seems to have no scruples about dumping all the ingredients into the bowl at once.

Once the batter was ready, I spooned it over the prepped jars. The original recipe was for a 9x9 cake, and I was able to easily fill one dozen 4-oz jars. In fact, I probably should have gone with more jars total and less batter in each, as you'll see presently.

They were a little scruffy after coming out of the oven, but no one sees the bottom edges anyway, so it’s ok. Next, I put a cookie sheet upside down on top of the cakes, said a prayer, and flipped all dozen of them at once.

Aaaand...it worked!

Unfortunately, my jars did not want to let go of their cakes very easily. This was the real problem that arose from them baking over the edges of the jars. I was able to coax them out one at  a time with a butter knife, but the transition definitely compromised the structural integrity of the finished product.

Admittedly, these guys aren't going to win any beauty pageants, but they’re sweet enough to make you forgive their disheveled appearance. 

In retrospect, I perhaps ought to have used Martha Stewart's version instead. Betty is more traditional, but Martha's version does feature a couple of adaptations that look appealing, like subbing vegetable oil for Betty's use of shortening and adding lime zest to the topping. 

Pineapple Upside-Down Cakes

Adapted from Betty Crocker

Ingredients

½ cup butter or margarine (add more if necessary to prep all dozen 4-oz jars)

2/3 cup packed brown sugar (add more if necessary to prep all dozen 4-oz jars)

9 slices pineapple in juice (from 14-oz can), drained and cut into sections

12 maraschino cherries without stems, if desired

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour 

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup shortening

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup milk

1 egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Melt butter in microwave and transfer to 4-oz jars, generously coating the bottom of each. 

Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter. 

Arrange pineapple slices over brown sugar, and place cherry in center of each pineapple slice.

In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.

Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Immediately place heatproof serving plate or sheet pan upside down over pan; turn plate and pan over. 

Leave pan over cake a few minutes so brown sugar mixture can drizzle over cake; remove pan. 

Serve warm. Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream would not be a terrible companion to this dessert.

Store cake loosely covered.

Zucchini Nut Ice Cream Sandwiches

It’s been a good many months since the 4oz Kitchen tackled a cake sandwich recipe; the hour has come to remedy that. I mean, it’s summertime, aka Picnic Season, and I think we can all agree that these little cousins of moon pies are a great dessert to pack up and take on the road.  However, I kind of negated the convenience-factor with this one when I decided to adapt Martha Stewart’s Zucchini Nut Bread Cookie recipe into ice cream sandwiches instead. I hope you can forgive me.

The ice cream is a bourbon vanilla base with butter-roasted pecans and salted caramel mixed in. I couldn’t find a recipe for exactly what I wanted online, so I cobbled something together using ideas from a few different sites.

Small Confession: This week’s recipe is also happening in part because, rookie gardener that I am, I seem to have planted a few too many zucchini plants this year, and now my kitchen is bursting with summer squash – like, have-fun-dealing-with-3-new-ripe-zucchini-every-day type bursting.  It’s almost more than I can handle. Almost.

Okay, this one has a lot of steps, so buckle up.

Ingredients for both ice cream and sandwich components prepped and ready.

The pecans after being roasted in butter and sprinkled with sea salt. When they were finished, my kitchen felt like a salty, nutty sauna, but they smelled (and tasted) so good I didn't care.

Sandwich cake tops and bottoms cooling on a wire rack and waiting for their filling.

My first attempt at making this ice cream didn’t work because my kitchen was so hot the custard wouldn’t set up in the frozen bowl attached to my mixer. In fact, said bowl melted entirely in twenty minutes, and the consistency of the batter had hardly thickened at all at that point. In retrospect, the five tablespoons of booze mixed into the custard probably didn’t help speed along the freezing process either. Everything was put on hold for the night while I re-froze the mixing bowl, and for the second try, I hauled my equipment down to the basement where the temperature always seems to hover near a balmy 65 degrees.  I flipped the mixer on, and, half an hour later, a very soft version of ice cream had appeared. Good enough!

Adding the variegates to the bourbon vanilla base was a bit harrowing since I could literally see my hard-won, barely-frozen ice cream melting before my eyes. I layered in the nuts and caramel in a manner that some may describe as ‘slapdash,’ but everything looked real pretty by the end, so I’m not too worried about it.

After a few hours in the freezer, the ice cream was fairly well set and ready to fulfill its destiny as zucchini cake sandwich filling. And once the zucchini cakes are gone, I will be happily finishing off the rest of it on its own, or perhaps mixing a scoop into my coffee as a summer morning treat. As I took these pictures, the ice cream became progressively meltier, so I saw this as a natural excuse to put down the camera already and eat mine as fast as I could.

Zucchini Nut Bread Sandwich Cookies

From Martha Stewart

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon coarse salt

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed light-brown sugar

1 large egg

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup finely grated zucchini

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

½ cup chopped toasted walnuts

Directions

Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and ¼ teaspoon salt into a bowl.

Beat butter and the sugars until pale and fluffy, then beat in egg and vanilla.

Beat flour mixture into butter mixture. Mix in zucchini, oats, and walnuts.

Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, then using a 1½-inch ice cream scoop (about 2 tablespoons), drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart.

Bake until edges are golden, about 17 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Bourbon Ice Cream with Salty Butter Pecans and Caramel

Adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2 cups half and half

½  cup nonfat dry milk powder

6 large egg yolks

½  cup sugar

¼  cup (packed) dark brown sugar

½ teaspoon coarse kosher salt, divided

5 Tbsp bourbon

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

1 Tbsp butter

½ cup salted caramel sauce (I used a jar of Smucker’s – feel free to make your own if you’re a masochist with time on your hands)

Directions

Bring first 3 ingredients to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until milk powder dissolves completely. Remove from heat.

Combine egg yolks, sugar, brown sugar, and ¼ teaspoon coarse salt in large bowl; whisk until thick and blended.

Pour about one third of the hot cream mixture into yolk mixture and whisk until blended, then slowly add the remaining cream mixture and continue whisking. Return combined mixture to same saucepan.

Stir over medium-low heat until custard thickens enough to leave path on back of spoon when finger is drawn across and temperature registers 175°F to 178°F.

Remove from heat. Mix in bourbon and vanilla extract.

Refrigerate custard uncovered until cold, stirring occasionally, at least 3 hours.

While the custard cools, cook pecans and butter in a small skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, 10-12 minutes or until toasted and fragrant. Spread pecans on parchment paper, and toss with remaining ¼ teaspoon kosher salt; allow to cool completely.

When custard has chilled sufficiently, pour mixture into freezer container of a 1-qt. electric ice-cream maker, and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. (Instructions and times will vary.)

Stir pecans and caramel sauce into prepared ice-cream mixture. Transfer finished ice cream to an airtight container or a loaf pan covered tightly with aluminum foil; freeze 3 to 4 hours or until firm.

Zucchini Nut Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients

Zucchini Nut Bread Sandwich Cookies (see above)

Bourbon Ice Cream with Salty Butter Pecans and Caramel (see above)

Directions

Once ice cream is set and zucchini nut bread cookies are cool, spoon a generous scoop of ice cream onto zucchini bread cookie and sandwich with another cookie.

Place in freezer and let set for 1 hour before serving. Try real hard not to eat them all at once

Goat Cheese Ice Cream with Roasted Peaches and Rosemary

Do you have access to an ice cream maker and goat cheese? If the answer is yes, then please make this immediately and continuously until Labor Day...and probably for the rest of the year...and maybe for the rest of your life. The basic recipe for goat cheese ice cream from Food52 is below, and here are seven variations on flavors and mix-ins, one of which I adapted to make tonight’s dessert. I feel like this is only the tip of the frozen hircine dessert iceberg. Take a moment to conjure a mental image for that phrase. You're welcome. 

After waiting three days for my peaches to ripen, they're sliced, pitted, and liberally covered in rosemary sugar in preparation for some glorious roasting.

Everything is better with butter, yes? Yes. The peaches are cooked with melted butter in a cast iron skillet, then transferred to the oven to roast and get really, really pretty and aromatic.

After roasting, I scooped the peaches into a ceramic bowl and cut them into bite-sized pieces. So as to not waste any sugary, buttery, peachy flavor, I poured the extra liquid remaining in the pan over the peach chunks and set the bowl aside to cool while I made the ice cream.

Earlier in the day, I'd prepared the ice cream batter, and it had been chilling in the fridge for quite a few hours before I poured into the ice cream maker. After that, it only took 20 minutes to mix and set up. 

The last (and most fun) order of business was mixing the peaches into the soft, new ice cream. I alternated between layers of fruit and ice cream until both were gone, then gently mixed it all together. It's sitting in the freezer right now hardening to normal ice-cream consistency. I'm waiting with bated breathe to try some as a type this sentence...

Goat Cheese Ice Cream

From Food52

Makes 1 quart

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

1/3 cup honey

¼ teaspoon salt

4 egg yolks

½ cup (4 ounces) fresh goat cheese,

Directions

Heat cream, milk, honey, and salt in a saucepan until just simmering. Meanwhile, in a light bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks.

Once milk mixture is simmering, slowly pour it into the yolks, while whisking constantly.

Add the egg and cream mixture back into the saucepan and cook on low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 5 to 7 minutes, then remove from the heat.

Crumble the goat cheese into a large bowl and then strain the warm custard through a fine mesh strainer onto the goat cheese and whisk until fully incorporated and smooth.

Cover and cool in the fridge until thoroughly chilled, at least 2 hours or overnight.

Freeze the mixture in an ice cream maker.

Once it is frozen, transfer dollops of ice cream into a one-quart container. If using add-ins (like peaches roasted with rosemary –recipe below, or something equally awesome – possible options here), stir those in now, adding tablespoons of the variegate as you go so that ice cream and add-in are layered together.

Run a butter knife through the mixture in a swirling motion two to three times to gently swirl the ice cream and variegate.

Seal the container and let the ice cream set in the freezer for at least 4 hours before serving.

The ice cream will keep for a week in the freezer.

Roasted Peaches with Rosemary

Adapted from Food52

Ingredients

¾ cup raw sugar

3 Tbsp chopped rosemary leaves

4 firm, ripe peaches, pitted and halved (peeling is optional)

Kosher salt

4 Tbsp unsalted butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 425° F

In a food processor, combine raw sugar and chopped rosemary (make sure the rosemary is completely dry if you've just rinsed it). Process for about 30 seconds, or until well integrated. (You won't need the full amount of rosemary sugar for one recipe, but it keeps well tightly covered, and it can be used in tea, on fruit, &c)

Liberally sprinkle cut sides of halved peaches with the rosemary sugar, and follow with a pinch of salt.

Melt butter in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.

Arrange the peaches in the skillet, cut side-down.

Cook for 3 to 5 minutes without disturbing, until the cut sides begin to brown. (Note: The peaches will throw off juice while they’re browning, but it will eventually thicken in the oven.)

Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast for about 10 minutes.

Flip the peaches, drizzle/baste with butter and juice from the pan, and continue roasting another 5 to 10 minutes, or until tender. (The total cooking time will depend on the size and ripeness of your peaches.)

Blueberry Shortcakes with Lemon and Thyme Biscuits and Jasmine Whipped Cream

For this week's recipe, I asked facebookworld to weigh in on a choice between another rhubarb-inspired adventure and blueberry shortcakes. They (or I should say you guys – I’m assuming the audience is the same, right?) opted for blueberries rather than a rhubarb redux, so bloobs it is. Democracy in action. In retrospect, I’m really glad this recipe was the winner, because, true to their name, shortcakes do not take long to prepare, and June is a busy month over here.  The only element of the recipe that took some extended preparation was the whipped cream, but we’ll talk about that later. First, an observation:

There are quite a few antiquated phrases for the act of improving the appearance of something that is ordinary or unappealing, and some of them subscribe to a decidedly porcine inclination: making a purse out of a sow’s ear, or putting lipstick on a pig. These came to mind when I was thinking about strawberry shortcakes and preparing my ingredients for this recipe. Now, I’m not saying that strawberry shortcake is the pig in this analogy per se (also, who ever said there was anything wrong with pigs? Noble animals for sooth, dependable, and intelligent)…but strawberry shortcake is an awfully ordinary dessert for the summer season. Delicious, sure, but expected, and perhaps even getting a little tired now that we’re past the solstice and barreling toward the dog days. So, while the length of this post's name alone may make it seem sophisticated and complicated, we’re basically just taking strawberry shortcake and making a few minor tweaks  -  churching up a biscuit here and swapping out a berry there – until this little piggy is so dolled up you'd think she's on her way to the prom. But I digress.

The biscuit assembly was straightforward. Plus, I like recipes that require kneading so this one gets bonus points in my book.

The recipe told me to use a 3-inch biscuit cutter to make the rounds, but here in the 4 oz Kitchen we’re in the habit of subbing drinking vessels for cutting tools, so I grabbed a tumbler off the shelf and went to town. Worked great.

I was able to get 8 good-sized biscuits out of the dough, so I don’t know how big the recipe authors were making theirs to only get 6. Maybe they just weren’t as thrifty with their scrap recycling as I am.

The biscuit bake time was the perfect window to get the blueberry topping ready. Preparing the berries was as simple as adding sugar and heat and stirring until they looked right. In other places, I’ve seen the transformation berries undergo during maceration called “giving up their water,” which I think is delightful.

Both the biscuits and berries need to come to at least room temperature before the dessert is assembled (the berries can even be chilled in the fridge for a day or two if you want to make them ahead of time). 

Okay, so let’s talk about this whipped cream. Here is the recipe that gave me the idea for a jasmine tea infusion, but I deviated from its instructions pretty significantly. My version more closely followed the method for steeping tea in milk for the Earl Grey Teacup Cakes I made last fall. Instead of just plopping the tea bags into cold milk, I heated the milk and then added the tea. I think this released the flavor from the tea bags better and made the infusion process faster and the final essence of jasmine more pronounced.  I had to be really careful with the heat since this was heavy cream instead of just milk like in the Earl Grey recipe, so I used a very low flame and watched it the whole time, stirring frequently as I steeped six tea bags for a good 15 minutes – until just before bubbles began (have you made ganache before? the almost-simmering process here is very similar). Then I took the pan off the heat, covered it with a towel, and let it come to room temperature before removing the towel, covering  the cream + tea bag mixture with plastic, and refrigerating it overnight. The next day, after the berries and biscuits were done, I just had to take the milk out of the fridge, remove the tea bags, and whip it up.

The care put into the preparing the cream definitely paid off. This whipped cream is amazing. I think I found my purpose in life, and it is to spread the Good News about flavored whipped cream to the uninitiated. It is the easiest thing in the world to prepare (granted, the tea infusion maybe takes a little more patience, but that’s a special case), and heavy cream is a blank canvas.  It takes so many flavors so well – basic extracts like mint and coconut, herbs like lavender and rosemary, spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, and tea! And liquor! And So. Much. More. Seriously, people. There's no reason to reach for Cool Whip when you’ve got these kinds of easy options at your fingertips.

This recipe has lots of pluses: saturated colors, high-contrast textures, and flavor for days. I really like the way that none of the components of this dessert are too sweet: the bitterness of the tea, the tartness of the berries, the earthiness of the thyme, the sharpness of the lemon all blend into a flavor that is subtle and mellow and really enjoyable. This dish is the type whose flavor emerges and evolves from bite to bite. But I feel like describing how something tastes can be a little bit like explaining what water feels like to fish, so you really just have to try it and judge for yourself. Or, as Levar Burton would say, “Don’t take my word for it.”

Blueberry Shortcakes with Lemon and Thyme Biscuits

From Bon Appétit

Ingredients for the Berries

4 cups (21-22 oz) fresh blueberries, rinsed & drained well

2/3  cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp water

Ingredients for the Biscuits

¾ cup chilled buttermilk

1 Tbsp finely grated lemon peel (in my world this is called ‘zest’. Idk why Bon Appétit has to be all verbose about it…)

1 tsp chopped fresh thyme

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup packed golden brown sugar

1½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

6 Tbsp chilled unsalted butter cut into 1/3-inch cubes

Raw sugar for dusting (I used Turbinado)

Directions

For the Berries

Combine all ingredients in large saucepan.

Stir over medium heat until berries are slightly softened and syrup coats spoon, about 10 minutes.

Transfer to medium glass bowl.

**Can be made 2-3 days ahead. Cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before serving

For the Biscuits

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 425°F. Line large rimmed baking sheet with silicone baking mat, smooth side up, or parchment paper.

 Mix buttermilk, lemon peel, and thyme in small bowl.

Whisk next 5 ingredients in large bowl to blend, breaking up any large clumps of brown sugar with fingertips.

Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add buttermilk mixture and stir with fork just until blended (dough will be sticky).

Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface. Knead gently just until dough comes together, 4 to 5 turns (do not overwork dough or shortcakes will be tough).

Pat dough out to 3/4-inch-thick round. Using 3-inch-diameter cookie cutter dipped in flour (or whatever wide-mouth glass happens to be within arm’s reach), cut out dough rounds. Gently gather dough scraps and pat out to 3/4-inch thickness. Cut out additional rounds, for 6 rounds total. (Again, I was able to easily get 8 when I used the dough up completely.)

Transfer dough rounds to prepared baking sheet, spacing evenly and sprinkle with raw sugar.

Bake biscuits until golden and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 15 minutes.

Transfer to rack; cool slightly before cutting, (*or cool to room temperature, package tightly, and save for up to 3 days…also, please enjoy the concrete and specific nature of the rest of these directions. Bon Appétit must think we’re all idiots who don’t know how to cut biscuits or use plates…)

Using a serrated knife, carefully cut biscuits horizontally in half. Place bottom half of each biscuit on each of 6 plates. Spoon blueberries and syrup over, dividing equally. Cover with biscuit tops. Place scoop of ice cream or dollop of whipped cream alongside each and serve.

Jasmine-Infused Whipped Cream

Adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 Tbsp good-quality loose-leaf jasmine tea or 4-6 jasmine tea bags

1 Tbsp granulated sugar (add more or less to taste)

Directions

To flavor the cream…

Pour cream into a small sauce pan over low heat and immediately add tea leaves/bags

Stirring frequently, slowly warm the cream until it is steaming and the tea begins to release its flavor – do NOT let the cream boil. If you see little bubbles starting to form, ABORT IMMEDIATELY.

After about 10 min, remove from heat, cover pan, and let it sit until cooled to room temp

Place room-temp cream into refrigerator to cool

*Once cream has chilled thoroughly (1-2 hours minimum), cream can be whipped at any time. Cream can also chill in the fridge overnight

To whip the cream…

Strain the cream-tea mixture through a fine strainer into a mixing bowl. Remove and dispose of solids.

Add sugar; beat until peaks form

Note (This may be Bon-Appétit-Level Captain Obvious Information, but just in case…): The intensity of the tea flavor will be dictated by how long the tea is left in the cream. For a gentler flavor, remove tea bags right away when cream comes off the stove. For more intense flavor, leave them in longer – all the way up until just prior to whipping, if you’d like.  For a really strong flavor, steep tea until just before whipping and firmly squeeze the excess cream from the bags into the mixing bowl as you’re removing them. Also remember that tea will give the cream a bitter flavor, so taste it before, during, and after the whipping process, and add enough sugar to ensure the final product is palatable.

Rhubarb Meringue Tartlets with Pecan Shortbread Crust

Even though spring has decided to be something of a tease this year, we’re charging ahead with the seasonal desserts here in the 4oz Kitchen. The only food that declares, “Spring has arrived, you clowns!” more than rhubarb, to me, is asparagus; however, working that ingredient into a dessert seems almost as foolhardy as trying to make a chocolate cake with beets, and we all remember how that turned out (okay, that beet cake was six kinds of awesome, but I don’t want to press my luck in the roulette of vegetable/dessert combos). So we'll save the asparagus for next time...perhaps in a savory scone or popover of some sort. As for this week, rhubarb will suffice.

A few weeks ago, Emily Hilliard wrote about a rhubarb meringue tart on Nothing in the House, and I’ve been hankering to try it ever since. The long holiday weekend afforded me enough time to make my dreams a reality (and to write in stultifyingly bland clichés…but can’t my vocabulary take a vacation too?).

I’ve been acquainted with rhubarb as long as I can remember. We had a tired, old rhubarb bush, planted by my great-grandparents, living next to our cottage up north, and in the years when it could muster enough chutzpah to produce a few healthy stalks, my dad would always use them to make pie. Now, this year, he’s already made a few of what I’ve come to consider his signature dish, so I think even if Emily hadn’t written about it, I’d ‘ve felt compelled to keep up with family tradition and crank out some sort of rhubarb-related pastry, but I’m really excited about the finished result of this particular recipe. While usually the word ‘curd’ is not one that immediately appeals to the palate, this one is a jaw-dropper...in the good way.

Ingredient line-up for the pecan shortbread crust.

First the dry ingredients and pecans go into the food processor, followed by a generous helping of cold butter.

A few more pulses and our dough is ready to be wrapped and chilled. Recipes often instruct dough to be made into a ball before wrapping, but if I know I'm going to be rolling it out later on (versus just piecing it into the pan), I like to go for a disc shape instead. This, along with letting the chilled dough stand at room temp for about 10 minutes before touching it with a rolling pin, generally makes the whole process go much more smoothly. 

The tart crust baked under foil and pie weights for 20 minutes and then uncovered for another 10. I had enough dough to fill all six of my mini-tart ramekins with a good thick crust and then had enough left over for three 4-oz jars as well. (Somebody may have gotten a little overzealous with her fork-hole-piercing of the crusts -- rest assured there were absolutely NO ripples or bubbles from unreleased air in these shells when they were done baking.)

Once the crusts came out of the oven, I set them aside to cool and worked on the filling. Three cups of diced rhubarb, which came from about 1 1/4 lbs of stalks, yielded 1 1/2 cups of puree. I didn't realize how much water the rhubarb itself contained until it began to cook down. With the help of my new immersion blender, the pureeing part of the curd was quick and easy. Said blender was purchased just recently after months if not years of hesitation. But Meijer was having a sale, so I think the universe was trying to tell me it was time to take the plunge already. Definitely no regrets so far.

Making curd is a stressful process, or at least an absorbing one. You’ll notice there are no pictures taken during this part of the recipe. This is because as soon as the rhubarb puree was finished and back on the stove top, the curd-making process began, and I was busy watching for lumps and whisking in yolks and monitoring the temperature to keep it at-but-not-above-185° F (sidebar: a couple of years ago I bought a candy thermometer. I wouldn’t say I use it often, but it’s definitely proven its worth in clutch situations like this).  However, all of the labor was worth it. Much like Willy Wonka’s paradigmatic snozzberry wallpaper, this rhubarb curd actually tastes like rhubarb. Or, more specifically, since rhubarb by itself is intensely, unpleasantly tart, it tastes like rhubarb pie filling. Eating this dessert is like having the exact flavor of rhubarb pie transported to the middle of a buttery, pecan-and-orange-zest-infused shortbread crust and topped with a fluffy, sugary cloud. The result is sensational. 

Once the tart filling was finished and had time to cool to room temperature, I scooped it into the shells with my trusty giant melon-baller (or ice cream scoop...whatever) and popped it into the fridge to set for two hours. Before scooping, I did have to add some pink food coloring to the curd to bring it back to a shade more reminiscent of rhubarb since the egg yolks added a decidedly yellow tinge when they were whisked in. 

While the tarts were in the fridge, I washed and sliced about a cup of strawberries and got my meringue ingredients ready. I opted to include the strawberry layer between the curd and meringue on some of the tarts because rhubarb + strawberry is never a bad combination. This was not a bad addition, but I was almost loath to add anything to distract from the flavor of the tart filling. The real motive behind this choice is the fact that when you buy strawberries, they demand to be used within a certain, fairly slim window, and mine were edging toward the point of no return, so on they went. I'm a little embarrassed how long I took painstakingly arranging my berry slices in pretty patterns on top of the tarts before I realized they would all be covered in meringue in the end. I like to think they tasted better for the extra TLC, regardless.

Five egg whites make meringue in abundance. I had a good bit left over, and in retrospect I wish I’d committed 100% to the thing and heaped my tarts even higher to use all of the topping. 

It took quite a bit of trial and error with various instruments before I found the best way to apply and then fancify the meringue so it would brown in a decorative way. Pro-tip: start with the butter knife, then use the spoon to finish; ditch the spatula entirely. Also, the historians in the audience should take a moment to notice the spoon used here. I was recently given the privilege of inheriting the silver owned by the same great-grandparents who planted the rhubarb in the first place. The spoon pictured is one of Clyde and Elma Taber’s very own. So that’s pretty boss.

When they came out of the oven for the last time, my meringue had toasted to a golden brown and the kitchen smelled like rhubarb pie, which told me I'd done something right. 

I finished this recipe pretty late at night, so once they were cool, I put all the tarts back in the refrigerator to keep overnight, and then rewarded myself with one for breakfast. I'd finished almost the whole thing before I remembered I had an obligation to pause and document for my readers. There is no better companion to morning coffee than a good pastry. And these aren't just good, they're sweet, tangy, light, fruity, and bursting with bright, springtime flavor.   

Rhubarb Meringue Tart with Pecan Shortbread Crust
Slightly modified from Nothing in the House

For the crust:
1 c. pecans, roasted
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
9 Tblsp. butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
zest of one small orange

For the filling:
3 c. fresh rhubarb, diced
1/4 c. + about 1/2 c. water  (extra ½ c. may not be necessary)
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
5 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)
3 Tblsp. butter, cut into chunks

For the meringue:
5 egg whites
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 c. sugar

Directions

For the crust:
1. Combine roasted pecans, flour, sugar, and baking powder in a food processor and pulse until pecans are finely ground.

2. Add cold butter chunks to the pecan mixture and process until mix is the size of small peas.

3. Add egg, egg yolk, vanilla extract and orange zest and pulse just until dough begins to form.

4. Remove pastry dough from the food processor, form into a disc and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Chill for at least one hour and up to 1 day.

5. After at least one hour, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease and flour the bottom and sides of a 9-inch tart pan or six 4 oz ramekins. Remove the dough from the fridge. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes, then place a sheet of waxed paper over the disc and roll it out to about 1/8” thickness.  If rolling isn’t your thing, Emily says you can also just press it into the bottom and sides of the tart pan. The bottom crust should be slightly thicker than the sides.

6. Pierce bottom and sides with a fork and then place crust in the freezer for about 10 minutes so butter can re-chill.

7. Remove, line with parchment paper and pie weights, then bake for about 20 minutes or until edges are light, golden brown.

8. Remove pie weights and bake for 5-10 more minutes. Take from oven and let cool.

For the filling:
1. Combine diced rhubarb and 1/4 c. water in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Let cook until rhubarb is soft and begins to break down.

2. With an immersion blender (or a stand blender), purée until smooth and set aside to cool slightly.

3. Once cooled, pour into a 2-cup measuring cup and add enough water to bring purée to 1 1/2 c if necessary. Then pour the rhubarb mixture back into the saucepan.

4. Add sugar, salt, and cornstarch to the purée mixture and cook over medium heat until it begins to thicken. Whisk constantly to prevent lumps.

5. Add in egg yolks, whisking after each addition.

6. Continue to cook until mixture coats the back of a spoon, or reads 185° F on a candy thermometer.

7. Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Let cool to room temperature. Once cooled, pour filling into pie crust, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for about 2 hours.

8. If desired, slice strawberries and arrange them in a thin layer over the filling before topping with meringue.

 For the meringue:
1. Once filling has chilled for 2 hours, and you’ve added strawberries if you want, preheat oven to 375° F.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix egg whites and cream of tartar on high until egg whites begin to form medium peaks.

3. Continue to beat eggs, gradually adding in sugar. Again continue to beat eggs until they are glossy and can form stiff peaks.

4. Spread over rhubarb filling, making sure the meringue seals the edge of the pie. Use the back of a spoon to curl meringue decoratively.

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until egg whites begin to brown. Serve chilled, at room temperature, or alongside a cup of coffee.