Rhubarb and Custard Traybake

Flicking through the Waitrose Spring Harvest 2015 booklet, Sous Chef J spotted a few recipes he "liked the look of" and, having read the ingredients, we decided we could make the bakes, with a few 'tweaks', gluten free.  This Rhubarb and Custard Traybake recipe tweak required us to use Dove's Farm Gluten Free self raising flour instead of the gluten containing 'stuff'.

400g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 2cm lengths
225g caster sugar
250g slightly salted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
3 medium eggs
175g self-raising flour (we used Dove's Farm gluten free)
50g custard powder (we used Bird's)
100g ground almonds
500g tub Waitrose Seriously Creamy Madagascan Vanilla Custard
12 sugar cubes, crushed (we used Pearlsugar)

Preheating the oven to 220C, we prepared the rhubarb by placing it on a non-stick baking sheet, sprinkling with 25g of the caster sugar and baking for about 15 minutes until it began to soften. 

Reducing the oven temperature to 170C (fan) we then began making the base of the traybake.


The remaining 200g of the caster sugar, softened butter, eggs, flour, custard powder, ground almonds and 100g of the custard were mixed together (we used an electric hand mixer).  This produced quite a firm mix and we brought it together, scraping around the bowl, using a silicone spatula.

Having prepared a shallow, non-stick 23cmx33cm baking tray by greasing it (we used the wrapper from the butter) and lining with baking parchment, we were ready to add the 'base' of the traybake.


Spreading the base mix out as evenly as possible, a dessertspoon was used to press into the mix and make 'wells'...










... which were then filled with the remaining ready-made custard.

Spreading the cooked (and cooled) rhubarb over the base, the traybake was ready to be baked.

We checked the traybake after 30 minutes at 170C and left it in the oven for a further 15 minutes - until the sponge was firm and the custard still had a bit of a wobble.

Taking the traybake out of the oven, it was placed on a wire rack and left to cool in its tin.... we sprinkled over a tablespoonful of pearlsugar (Scandinavian sugar).

The cooling traybake looked impressively like the one in the recipe we were following.

Once the traybake was fully cooled, we cut it into 15 pieces and were pleased that it stayed together nicely.  The sponge base was lovely and soft but kept its shape.  Finding the pockets of custard, now firm and unctuous, with the tart rhubarb topping gave each portion a lovely range of tastes and textures.

NOTE - we made this bake again this weekend but used two smaller trays... it was a huge success.

Coconut Traybake

This is a recipe from the Dove's Farm website - we tweaked it a little by turning it into a traybake, using raspberry jam and also slightly changing the method!

Following our usual style, we collected the ingredients together and weighed out the quantities required.


We lined a 7" by 11" baking tray (not the 8"x8" tin the recipe used)


and combined the dry ingredients together.




Next, the wet ingredients were beaten using a hand mixer until the foam on the top remained when the beaters were removed.




The method in the recipe says to add dry to wet ingredients so we did this, even though it seemed the wrong way round.

Having mixed the newly combined ingredients together, the cake batter was poured into the lined tray.

Placing the tray into a pre-heated fan oven at 180ºC, the timer was set for 35 minutes.  After this time, we moved the tray to a lower shelf and set the timer for a further 10 minutes.

A skewer was inserted into the cake to see if it came out clean (which would indicate a cooked cake mix) and when it did, the tray was removed from the oven and left on a wire rack to cool.







In a change from the Dove's Farm method, we then spread our raspberry jam over the cooling cake in a thin layer.


Once the cake was fully cooled, it was cut up and served with coconut milk custard.

The cake was very much thinner and less cake-like than is shown in the picture on the Dove's Farm site.  However, it was happily eaten by Sous Chef J who requested seconds.  We think it's more of a coconut bar than a cake... but a tasty treat, whatever it's called!

Disclosure - we were sent some Dove's Farm speciality flours to try and chose to use the tapioca flour in this recipe.  The views are our own and we were not required to blog about the products.

Rhubarb fool with ginger crumble

It seems that quite a lot of the time, shop bought packets of gluten free biscuits are a mass of crumbs when we open them.  Given their cost and being of a thrifty Northern persuasion, methods to use them up are sought.  So, when we found one of our favourite packs of Lazy Days Ginger Snaps were already beginning to crumble it gave us an idea.  We'd had a bundle of rhubarb in the veg box and thought we'd try to make 'something' tasty.  Being the type of 'cooks' that opt for simple stuff with very few ingredients, it was then a question of whether to go with rhubard fool or rhubarb crumble... in the end we went for a 'combo pud' as you will see.

The ingredients were simply - rhubarb, honey, rice milk and custard powder, gluten free ginger biscuit crumbs and some double cream for decoration (for Sous Chef J)... you can leave out the cream if you want/need a dairy free pud.

Preparing the rhubarb was a matter of washing, peeling and slicing.  This was placed in a stainless steel pan together with about a tablespoon of runny honey and a dash of water.  A tight fitting lid was placed on the pan and the rhubarb was cooked over a low heat until it began to soften.  At this point, the heat was turned off and the mix was left to one side to cool.





Meanwhile, the custard was made.  We used about half a pint of rice milk and a tablespoon of custard powder.  A bit of milk was added to the custard powder to make a paste.  Then, having heated the milk to almost boiling point, the warmed milk was added to the paste, then the whole lot was put back in the pan and heated, over a moderate heat, stirring all the time until the custard thickened.  This was also set to one side to cool.





Whilst the rhubarb and custard was cooling, the ginger biscuits were turned from bits to crumbs. Sous Chef J made full use of a rolling pin to assist the crumbling process.

 Finally, it was time to assemble... so we found a few jam jars to use for our 'rustic' presentation and some smarter glasses for the 'posh' puds.

Assembly entailed layering the rhubarb in the bottom, adding some custard (carefully or else it can sink) and finally topping with the ginger biscuit crumble.

For the full 'posh' presentation in the martini glasses the crumble was topped a trio of whipped double cream "eggs".








The end result was clean crockery which is always a good sign.

The rustic presentation in jars would make a good pud for taking on picnics - although ours didn't last long enough to make it out into the sunny UK weather!  A simple free from pud that isn't chocolate or a piece of fruit.