Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Harvesting rhubarb is almost as fun as eating it: Individual pieces crack off smartly, cleanly separating from the mother plant, leaving you with colorful stalks and a leaf the size of ancient Egyptian fans. If you've never broken your own rhubarb stalks, you should sneak into a patch and try it sometime. I swear it will be worth it.

Cooking with rhubarb is just as rewarding: you take a bitter, pungent and, almost inedible stalk and watch it shine as the star ingredient supported by a cast of pastries and tarts.

This season my obsession is Rhubarb Coffee Cake. I started experimenting with grocery store rhubarb a few weeks ago, and now we've finally gotten to the super fresh stuff, and OMG, I have the best coffee cake recipe. It's got a cinamon-ginger crumb top, a moist vanilla bottom and a tart rhubarb center that just makes your day. This coffee cake brings all the neighbors to the yard. So far I have made it for a teacher appreciation brunch, a neighborhood brunch, and my family has simply eaten several of these cakes on our own.

About Rhubarb: If you don't already know this, only use the stalks of the rhubarb plant. The leaves are poisonous. After disposing of the leaves, the next thing you need to consider when making this coffee cake is how fresh your rhubarb is. The freshest rhubarb is going to put off a lot of moisture when you let it sit in sugar and lemon. You can still work with it, but all that juice may cause the center of your cake to sink a bit. The best rhubarb to use for this cake is rhubarb that's been in the fridge a few days. That way you will get a fair amount of juice, but you won't end up with a soggy cake.

About this Recipe

This recipe has three elements: cake, rhubarb center, and a crumb topping. Each element uses roughly the same ingredients, and it comes together quite quickly. In order to make planing easier, I've provided a complete shopping list and then provided an ingredient list for each element.

Why this Recipe is Different from Melissa Clark's (2007) and Deb Perelman's (2008) recipes? These two women are the originals for this cake. What I've done is streamlined the ingredients, (no more corn starch or different flours). I also give the rhubarb time to "cook" in lemon juice and used buttermilk instead of sour cream to give the cake a little extra tang. Lastly, I've added some extra flour to keep your crumb from getting mushy and adjusted the cooking time for peak doneness. These small changes add up to huge differences.

Rhubarb Coffee Cake

Takes about 30 minutes to make. 55-65 minutes to bake. Bake in a parchment lined 8x8 glass pan. Serves 9-12

Inspired by Melissa Clark's Rhubarb "Big Crumb" Coffee Cake and Deb Perlemen's

Complete Ingredients List

1/2 pound rhubarb

1/2 lemon

about 1 cup granulated white sugar

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

About 3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon Diamond kosher salt

14 tablespoons of unsalted butter (6 tables room temperature and then additional 8 at any temperature)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Step One: Rhubarb Layer:

Ingredients

1/2 pound rhubarb (roughly 2 large or 3 medium stalks)

1/2 lemon juiced

1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 320 degrees. Lightly coat a 8x8 glass baking pan with cooking spray or oil (for easiest removal line the baking pan with an oiled piece of parchment). Set pan aside. Thinly slice rhubarb (about 1/6 of an inch pieces). Put slices in a medium sized bowl, squeeze lemon juice over top and pour over sugar. Mix to combine and set aside.

STEP TWO: Crumb Topping:

Ingredients

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted

1/3 cup packed brown sugar 70 grams

1/3 cup granulated sugar 65 grams

1 and 1/3 cups all purpose flour (do not scoop!) 160 grams

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon Diamond Kosher salt

Melt butter in the microwave in a medium sized bowl. Then fold in other Ingredients until clumps form and flour is evenly distributed.

STEP THREE: Coffee Cake

Ingredients

6 tablespoons room temperature unsalted butter

1/3 cup granulated white sugar (65 grams)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup buttermilk (thick is best)

3/4 teaspoon diamond kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 and 1/3 cup all purpose flour (160 grams)

Using a stand mixer, beat togher butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat to combine. Then add butermilk and mix. Batter will look a bit curdled at this point, but it will even out! Sprinkle baking powder, baking soda, and salt over the wet ingredients and mix to combine. Then sprinkle flour over top and mix until just combined.

STEP FOUR: Assemble Layers

Ingredients

prepared cake batter

prepared rhubarb mixture

3 tablespoons of all purpose flour

prepared cinnamon-ginger crumbs

Spread batter evenly across the bottom of the pan, this will take a little coaxing from the thick batter (I just use my fingers). Set aside. Fold in 2 tablespoons of remaining flour into your sugared rhubarb and lemon mixture (and accumulated juices), then pour the rhubarb and collected juices into the batter. Next, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of remaining flour over top of your rhubarb. It will look like the photo above. (This will keep your rhubarb juice from melting your rhubarb crumbs). Lastly, spread your crumb mixture on top.

Cook for 55-70 minutes at 320 (or 300 convection) until rhubarb starts to just bubble up and the top of the coffee cake looks toasty and set. If your rhubarb is really fresh, it's probably going to take a full 70 minutes. If it's a little older, it will be done closer to 55 minutes.

Allow coffee cake to cool before removing it from the pan. In a cool house it can be kept on the counter for 3 days. We've never had one last longer than that. Otherwise, refrigerate after the first day.

Garlic Bread: How to Win Dinner and Not Overwhelm People (with your breath)

I use garlic bread to bribe my kids to eat new foods, and also to make sure that they eat enough so they don't ask for a second dinner at 8pm.

We eat a lot of garlic bread, but I hate garlic breath. There's little I hate more than when I curl up with my kids for nighttime books and, even though everyone has brushed their teeth, I want to ask everyone to stop breathing because I cannot stand the smell.

This used to be a regular occurrence until I came up with a trick that makes garlic-bread- breath much less lethal and, frankly makes garlic bread even tastier: microwave your garlic! When you microwave the garlic with the butter it cooks the garlic a tiny bit, making it sweeter and less pungent. With this recipe for garlic bread you'll win dinner and your breath won't ruin the rest of your evening.

About Bread Choice:

I've found that a slightly less crusty (this does not mean soggy or floppy) baguette works best. The par backed ones (like they sell at Trader Joes) work well here, just make sure to finish baking your bread BEFORE you try to turn it into garlic bread. Do not try and substitute the high heat of the broiler for the actual baking of the bread.

About Cleanup:

For zero clean up you can line your sheetpan with tinfoil. I don't like to make extra waste, so I simply assemble my garlic bread on a cutting board then putt the bread on a pan to bake. This reduces the amount of butter and cheese that gets spilled on my pan.

Garlic Bread to Win Dinner

Time: 10 minutes. 1 baguette serves 8-10

Ingredients

1 baguette

1 stick of salted butter

3 medium cloves of garlic

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme (optional)

1 ounce (about 1/2 cup) finely shredded parmesan

black pepper to taste

STEP ONE

Position your oven rack about 6 inches away from the broiler. You can set it lower or higher, but then you'll have to really pay attention to cook time. Turn broiler to high to preheat.

STEP TWO

Carefully slice baguette in half and then cut it in half horizontally so you havel four open face sides of bread (see photo above). Set baguette aside.

STEP THREE

Cut stick of butter into 2 tablespoon chunks and put them in a microwave safe bowl. Crush or mince your garlic and add it to the butter. Cover your microwave safe bowl with plastic wrap or a small microwavable plate (to prevent butter spatter in the microwave). Microwave for 30 second bursts until butter is melted. Add dried oregano, dried thyme, and ground pepper to melted butter and garlic. Stir to combine.

STEP FOUR

Spoon butter mixture evenly over all four pieces of baguette. Next, sprinkle cheese evenly over top the bread. Place bread on a cookie sheet and put in the oven for about 2-3 minutes. Check on it after the first minute because time will vary depending on your broiler and the distance your garlic bread is from the heat. When the cheese melts and gets toasty on top remove from oven.

Allow to cool for 1 minute and then slice and serve immediately.

Pistachio-Sunfower Dukkah Nut Blend

Do you remember a few summers ago when everyone was sprinkling chili powder, salt and lime on top of fruit? At first it was delicious, but by the time you got to the bottom of the bowl I found it was kinda joyless. In my humble opinion adding Dukkah to melon is better than chili-lime. It's better because Dukkah (an Egyptain spice/nut blend) will give you a more complex flavor that does just taste like heat and add great texture. I eat it on pretty much everything. It's fantastic on melon, eggs, salads, meat, avocado toast, yogurt and smoked salmon. I eat so much more fruit when I have this to sprinkle on top. And once you know the ratios of nuts to salt and spice you can experiment with your own blend.

This is not an authentic Egyptian dukkah. There are plenty of Dukkah recipes out there from people who are "in the know" and grew up eating Dukkah (For instance: Mediterranean Dish or Amira's Pantry). What I did with my Dukkah nut-spice blend is create something easy with a coarser texture that will give you a good crunch and spice level. Most of the Dukkah recipes out there are about the same, but with different peppers for spice (although usually cayenne or black pepper) and different types of nuts (pistachios, peanuts, or hazelnuts). I borrowed Brandon Skier's suggestion in "Make it Fancy" to incorporate sunflower seeds into the blend, and I really like the texture and flavor of the sunflower seeds, as well as the extra bulking up of the blend that they provide.

ABOUT TOASTED NUTS/SEEDS:

If you can only find roasted pistachios, roasted sunflower seeds or sesame seeds, then just grab those. I sometimes have trouble finding raw sunflower seeds and I often use the pre-roasted ones. They're not quite as flavorful, but they'll absolutely work.

Pistachio-Sunflower Dukkah

Takes 30 minutes to make. Optional: food processor

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup (85 grams) un-roasted and unsalted pistachios

1/2 cup (40 grams) raw sunflower seeds

2 tablespoons untoasted sesame seeds

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground Aleppo pepper

2/4 teaspoon flaked sea salt (the fancy stuff)

STEP ONE

Set your oven to 350 degrees and spread your pistachios and sunflower seeds out on a sheet pan that has a lip. Roast pistachios and sunflower seeds for 4 minutes, then turn them in the pan and sprinkle the sesame seeds on the pan as well. Return pan to the oven and roast for another 3 minutes. Carefully try a pistachio seed and look at your other seeds to see if they are roasted yet. They may need 1-2 minutes more. When your seeds begin to take on a golden hue and start to smell remove the pan from the oven. Make sure you don't over toast them or they will taste bitter. Set pan aside and allow seeds to cool for 5 minutes.

STEP TWO

WITH A FOOD PROCESSOR: add seeds and nuts to processor bowl and then pile 1 teaspoon ground coriander, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin and 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground Aleppo pepper on top. Pulse ingredients until pistachios have a corse chop. You want texture here, not powdered nuts. pour mixture into a bowl and toss in the flaked sea salt.

BY HAND: spread seeds and nuts out on a cutting board and chop until most of your pistachios and sunflower seeds have been chopped into coarse pieces. Transfer contents into a bowl, sprinkle cumin, coriander and Alleppo pepper and salt on top. Stir to combine.

Dukkah will last for several weeks in an airtight container.