blood orange – Hello Victoria

RHUBARB AND BLOOD ORANGE CUSTARD DANISH

acthiessen — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 21:29:00 +0000

A while back, while hunting for Danish inspiration photos on Pinterest, I stumbled across a beautiful recipe on Hint of Vanilla for a Rhubarb Danish (check out her blog, not only is it amazing, but she’s Canadian!). The shape of the Danish was unique, and the piping of the cream with the St. Honoré tip was beautiful. Quite frankly, her danishes (what is the plural of Danish?) look so good you might as well stop reading this now, and just head over to her blog – trust me, it’s better!

I’ve been wanting to try her recipe, or at least a variation of it, ever since. As I was buying rhubarb for my skillet cake (as well as to infuse some gin, like our sloe gin) I decided to buy a whole kilo and experiment. Since I was sending these with Richard to his work, I knew I couldn’t pipe cream on top, like the original recipe. So I decided to add creaminess with a pastry cream, piped under the rhubarb, flavored with blood orange and vanilla! After all, orange is a great complement to rhubarb, and I was buying them anyway for other recipes.

As I was making this recipe on my two days off, and was trying to cram like 8 recipes in those days, I tried to go the lazy route. I had seen puff pastry and pie dough in the grocery stores and assumed that you could probably buy ready-to-roll croissants or Danish dough. Wrong… wrong, wrong, wrong. I had hoped to spend my days off doing so many things and didn’t want to make Danish dough. It’s not hard, just time-consuming.

So because I already had my other ingredients, I decided to just suck it up and make the dough. Except I misread my recipe twice and had to make the dough three times (!!) before I got it right (that is what happens when I rush things). Then, of course, I was trying to rush my turns, and was freezing the dough in between to chill it quickly… and forgot about it between the first and second turn. When I tried to roll it out, it was still too cold and I broke the butter sheet… gah! So please, don’t look too closely at the dough in the photos, and do what I say, not what I did.

The layers weren’t very nice in the end, but the flavor is still there. These two days weren’t my best because I was trying to do too much. I ended up not doing everything as well as I should have.

I made a half-batch recipe, which makes about 7 proper Danish, with scrap left over. The full recipe makes 15 Danish, and the excess can be used to make the little mini bite-sized ones.

If you find that you have extra pastry cream left over – don’t worry! It tastes amazing and you could pretty much just eat it with a spoon… or dip fruit in it… or pipe it into tart shells and top with fresh fruit! It’s pretty versatile.

Mmmmm… now I want to make these again, but take my time to do the dough properly! If you’re feeling up to it, Danish dough isn’t really hard, just takes a good couple of hours to make. However, if your shop has it for sale, you might want to take the easy route! This recipe looks long and daunting, but trust me, these aren’t as hard as they look!

Rhubarb and Custard Danish

Prep Time 4

Cook Time 20

Total Time 4 20

Servings 15 Square Danish + 15 Mini Danish

Ingredients

500 g rhubarb leaves removed
40 g sugar
1 vanilla bean divided
1 blood orange zest and juice, divided
285 ml milk
375 g butter for butter block
250 ml milk
50 g sugar
20 g corn starch
1 egg yolk
500 g bread flour
50 g sugar
7 g salt
14 g fresh yeast 7g active dry or 4.5g instant
1 egg
50 g butter for dough

Instructions

For the rhubarb, slice each stalk in half, down the middle, and place in a dish. Zest and squeeze the juice of half the orange, and cut open half the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds. Place the zest, juice, vanilla seeds, and pod in the dish with the 40g sugar and rhubarb. Toss to evenly cover the rhubarb and allow to sit for at least an hour.
For the pastry cream, combine the milk, sugar, zest, from the second half of the orange, and remaining vanilla seeds and pod. Bring the milk to a gentle simmer, and remove from the heat. Cover and allow to seep for at least 30 minutes.
Once the cream has infused long enough, whisk the egg yolk with the cornstarch, and pour in some of the milk mixture to thin it out a little. Bring the milk to a low boil and slowly pour into the cornstarch mixture, while whisking vigorously.
Return the whole mix to the pot and bring to a boil over a medium heat, while whisking the whole time. When you feel the mixture start to thicken, briefly remove from the heat and whisk, to prevent the egg from over cooking. Then return to the heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, continue to cook for 10 seconds to ensure that the corn starch is cooked out.
Remove from the heat, and stir in 2-3 tbsp of the blood orange juice. Pour through a sieve onto a large piece of cling film. Wrap the pastry cream in the cling film to make a little parcel and allow to cool in the fridge. If you have extra juice, pour it over the rhubarb.
To make the danish dough, the method depends on which kind of yeast you are using. If fresh, add it to the cold milk; if active dry, warm the milk to 115°F (45°C) and dissolve the yeast in it first; if instant, mix in with the flour. Depending on your yeast, place the ingredients in the bowl in the following order: milk, egg, sugar, flour, salt, and butter (in small pieces).
Mix the ingredients together until they resemble a shaggy mass, and then turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead the dough slowly for 2 minutes, just to get the ingredients combined and the butter worked in, then up the speed to fast for 8 minutes. Wrap the dough in cling film and allow to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
While the dough is resting, make the butter block. Wrap the butter in cling film, and pound with a rolling pin. Continue pounding the butter, and folding the edges over, until you can fold the butter and it doesn’t crack. Shape the butter into a 20cm square and set aside at room temperature until the dough is ready.
To encase the butter, roll the dough out to a 20cm rectangle, on a well floured surface. Cut a cross into the dough and pull out the corners. Roll them out while keeping the middle slightly raised. Brush off any extra flour, and place the butter block in the middle.
Cover the butter with the dough flaps, one at a time, brushing off the extra flour, and pinch to completely seal.
To make the first turn, gently press the dough with a rolling pin to merge the layers together, and then roll out in one direction to 45 cm long. Fold the top third of the dough down, brush off the extra flour, and fold the bottom up to cover. You should have a rectangle of dough with three layers. Cover in cling film and allow to rest for 30 minutes. You can speed up the rest time with a brief turn in the fridge, but need to make sure that the butter stays soft.
For the second turn, roll the dough in the opposite direction as before (rolling the open ends out) and complete the turn as the first. Allow to rest for 30 minutes again.
Complete the third turn, same as the second, and allow to rest for 20 minutes.
Once the dough is ready, roll it out on a well floured surface to just larger than a 21 cm x 70 cm rectangle and then cut the edges of the dough to 21 cm x 70 cm. Cut the dough into 30 squares, 7 cm x 7 cm. Using a round cookie cutter, cut 15 circles from half the squares.
Remove the rhubarb from the dish and line up the stalks on a cutting board. Using the same circle cutter, cut circles of the rhubarb, using a small sharp knife if necessary. Cut 15 circles of rhubarb and the chop up any remaining rhubarb to top the scrap pieces.
Brush a little water around the edges of the full squares and top with the ones with the circles cut out. Pipe a bit of the cream in the middle and top with the circles of rhubarb.
For the scrap circles, pipe on a small mound of cream, and top with some of the chopped rhubarb.
Place all the danish on parchment lines trays and sprinkle with some turbinado sugar (demererra sugar) if you like. Cover the trays with upside down plastic bins, or loosely with cling film, and allow to proof for 1.5-2 hours, or until well puffed and you can start to see the layers.
While the danish are proving, preheat the oven to 340°F (170°C).
Bake the danish for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. rotating after 10 minutes if necessary.
Remove from the oven, and allow to cool on racks. If desired, make a simple glaze with water (or milk) and icing sugar, and drizzle over the top.

RHUBARB AND BLOOD ORANGE SEMOLINA CAKE

acthiessen — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 19:36:00 +0000

Rhubarb and blood orange semolina cake | Hello Victoria

In the early months of the year, the produce options can feel a bit limited. Berries are crazy expensive, stone fruits are even worse, and everything feels a bit dull. However, what some people don’t realize is that winter is citrus season!

Now is the time to experiment with blood oranges, grapefruit, bergamot lemons… etc. Not only is citrus in season, but here in England forced rhubarb is upon us! You might not be able to find it at every grocery store (mine didn’t have it), but Borough Market is currently in supply.

I’ve always loved rhubarb, even as a kid. I remember my mom picking my sister Bethany and I big pieces from her plant, and we would dip the ends in sugar and eat them. We were weird.

But I digress… back to the recipe!

I’ve been getting tons of recipes and inspiration from Waitrose’s monthly magazine. It’s free for people who sign up for their Waitrose rewards card, and chock full of great recipes. I’ve made a lot so far, and haven’t had a bad one yet!

Not only are the recipes good, but the magazine highlights what’s in season for that month, and does a series of recipes based on it. For the February magazine, there were lots in there with rhubarb and blush oranges, and this recipe was the first on my list! (Side note – are those different from blood oranges? The ones I bought said “blood’ but were nowhere near as deep red as the kind back in Canada – perhaps they were blush?)

I have had cakes made with polenta (corn meal back home) before, and loved them (I love corn bread too!!). When I first read this recipe, I thought it was a polenta cake – but instead, this one is made with finer semolina flour. Oh well, I was still curious to try it!

The original recipe said to bake this cake in a skillet, but as we don’t have one, I transferred it to a simple round cake tin instead. Feel free to use a cast iron skillet if you have one available.

At first, the cake seems very, very dry – but that is where the blood orange syrup comes in! I’d suggest possibly adding the juice and zest from another orange to the mix, as I think the flavor would be even better. Make sure to flip your cake after the five minutes so that the juice doesn’t get all absorbed at one end, instead of being distributed evenly. (I made that mistake and found the bottom a tad dry – but serving it with the suggested Greek yogurt adds a lovely tang and moisture!)

If you’re feeling up for something a tad different, or just want an excuse to eat more cake, try this one on for size!

Rhubarb and Blood Orange Semolina Cake

Recipe from the February 2017 issue of Waitrose Food Magazine

Ingredients

1-2 blush/blood oranges zest and juice*
250 g caster sugar
12 cardamom pods
40 g unsalted butter
500 g rhubarb cut into 4-5 cm pieces
225 g greek yogurt plus additional for serving
100 ml olive oil
2 large eggs
160 g semolina
80 g all-purpose flour
1.75 tsp baking powder
50 g ground almonds
30 g chopped pistachios optional**

Instructions

In a small saucepan, set over medium heat, stir together the orange juice, 125 g of the caster sugar, and 125 ml water. Gently bring to a boil, then reduce the heat a little, and simmer for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool completely.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F). Grease and line the bottom of a 9″ (24 cm) cake tin with parchment paper.
Crack open the cardamom pods and crush the seeds with a mortar and pestle***. Melt the butter in a frying pan (or skillet – if baking in one) over medium low heat. Sprinkle in 75 g of caster sugar and heat for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle over the crushed cardamom seeds, stir, and take off the heat.
Place the butter mixture in the bottom of your cake tin (or leave in the skillet) and pile on the rhubarb.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, oil, eggs, and orange zest. In another bowl, whisk together the semolina, flour, baking powder, ground almond, remaining 50 g sugar, and a pinch of salt.
Fold the dry mixture into the wet, until completely combined. Spoon mixture into the cake tin, starting around the edges to keep the rhubarb in the centre. Smooth over the top.
Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Right after you take the cake out of the oven, pierce all over with a toothpick, and pour over the cooled syrup (do not remove from pan).
Leave the cake in the pan for 5 minutes, then invert onto a plate. Sprinkle over the pistachios (if using) and allow to sit for at least 20 minutes to fully absorb the syrup.
Serve with some additional greek yogurt (sweetened if desired).

Notes

* Original recipe called for 1 blush orange, but depending on the orange size, two might be better ** I forgot to add these before taking photos *** I don’t have a mortar and pestle, so didn’t crush the seeds (you can see them in my photos).