(rhubarb strawberry) crisp

Working from this recipe, I made a rhubarb strawberry crisp today. For the fruit, you proceed as for pie. In this case, about 6 cups of sliced rhubarb and strawberries were tossed with about a cup of sugar, a few tablespoons of corn starch and a big pinch of cinnamon. I used a 9x13 pan, which I did not butter (although the recipe calls for buttering). Other crisps/crumbles that I'd made recently had a topping that was too starchy; I was using flour and rolled oats but too little sugar and rubbing cold butter into the dry. For today's crisp, I used

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup rolled oats (I like large flake)
• 3/4 packed brown sugar
• a pinch of salt

and here's the surprise

• 1/2 cup melted butter

The dry ingredients are mixed and then drizzled with the melted butter and everything is tossed to combine. The resulting mixture does not hold together but is rather more like dark brown pebbles. This is spread over the fruit and the dish is baked at 375 for about 30 minutes until the topping is browned (I would say "browner"). This was a delicious crisp, and the topping was awesome. As soon as I find my copy of the "The Best Recipe" (we're still unpacking), I want to cross-check with their approach.

strawberry shortcake

Pie season has returned; I have baked an apple pie and there is a red currant tart in the oven right now. But a few days ago I finally got strawberry shortcake to work:

Before starting, cut up as many strawberries as you can, and mix them with a bit of sugar. Let them stand, the longer the better; the syrop that emerges from them is the key. Make one large, thin biscuit (I made it with 1 cup of flour), but add to the recipe 1/4 cup sugar for every cup of flour. You could go even sweeter. When the biscuit is done, let it cool a bit, and split it carefully into two thin layers. On the bottom layer put all the strawberries, and all the syrop from them. Add some whipped cream, and then replace the top layer. "Ice" the shortcake with more whipped cream and some leftover strawberries.

"The Most Delicious Fruit Sorbet in the World"

Today we have a guest, my son Ben, who you know, dear Readers, as the star of Ants on a Log. I am acting as his scribe: "First I weighed 400 g of frozen strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. Then I put them into a food processor and blended them for a little bit. Then I added two handfuls of sugar and blended a little bit longer. Then I realized that it was just dark so I added a spoonful of vanilla yoghurt and then blended it again until it was all mixed together. Then I put it into a container, tasted it and put it into the freezer."