We had a lot of storms this week. Luckily, though, they’ve been gentle to farmers and to homeowners. Today started so dark, with really sweet sounds of running coming down. The dogs didn’t want to get out of bed; I didn’t want to get out of bed. We used to have more storms like this, and fewer that cause damage. Those used to be the anomaly. So today, I enjoyed the gentle rain, the dark skies, and the thunder. We need more storms like this.
Rhubarb is really not a thing you should ever spend money on – at least not in the midwest. You should find it your friends’ and families’ yards, growin’ like a weed. As a rule, I never buy it. However. This stuff was deep garnet red. It’s gorgeous. Not only did I buy rhubarb, I bought organic rhubarb from the co-op. Sorry, you guys, I didn’t have a choice. Look at this stuff! The flavor was perfect. I needed to show off the color of this stuff.
These are so simple and, I think, the ultimate rhubarb dessert: little pastry cups, filled with rich almond-coconut cream, and piled high with honey-roasted rhubarb.
Hints on making these bites of heaven:
- Use your favorite pastry crust recipe – I used pie crust, but you could use frozen phyllo dough or puff pastry (FYI, vegan!), too.
- Fill with almond-coconut cream (recipe below).
- Macerate tiny-diced rhubarb in sugar (2 Tbsp) and honey (2 Tbsp) for about 30 minutes. Then add more honey (2 Tbsp more) and roast in the oven (350F) for about 30 minutes.
- Roll out pastry dough and cut in circles to fit a greased muffin tin. Fill with cream and top with a few pieces of rhubarb, just enough to cover the cream.
- Bake (350F) for about 30 minutes, until the pastry is brown. Pile more roasted rhubarb on top!
Almond-Coconut Cream
125 g butter
125 g sugar
125 g almond flour
40 g coconut flour
2 eggs
15 g cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla
Cream butter, sugar, and eggs together until fluffy and smooth. Add in all other ingredients and mix until combined.