The Baking Sheet newsletter
Do you enjoy reading about the love and lore of recipes? Have you been in search of the formula for the ultimate chocolate chip cookie? Are you dying to know the secret of crusty French bread or perfect pie crust or baking with whole grains?
King Arthur Flour’s award-winning bimonthly (six issues per year), 24-page newsletter is timed for you to take advantage of the seasons’ best baking opportunities. Including great tips and techniques, color photographs, answers to readers’ baking questions, and tons of recipes, you’ll be on the inside for the latest in baking news! See for yourself: take a look at our most recent annual index of articles.
Subscribe!
Spring 2012 Baking Sheet
Publication date: week of 4/23/2012
Spring around here is generally first seen from the vantage point of my cross-country skis, gliding on corn snow 3 feet above ground, basking in the bounce of the strengthened sunlight as it reflects off the crystalline surface. I feel the power and warmth of the rays, in a way I hadn’t realized I was missing until just that moment. I turn my face up, soaking in the sun’s energetic benediction. When my rhubarb is just starting to come up, most other bakers in the US are already deep into strawberry shortcake. By the time my first garden strawberry turns red, others are getting their hands on the first peaches of the year. No matter when the first local produce appears in your neck of the woods, we have a collection of recipes in this issue to get you excited.
— Susan
Rhubarb Biscuit Cake
By Susan Reid
I grew up making Nabisco’s Famous Chocolate Wafer refrigerator cake; decades later I used the recipe to introduce my young nieces to the glory of making your own cake without having to bake anything. For spring, I got to thinking how much I like rhubarb, and how almost anything you make with it can be kind of… gloppy.
Then I realized all that juiciness was just the ticket to soften up cookies to make a refrigerator cake. If you have any homemade strawberry jam in the freezer or on your shelf, this is a great place to put it to use, and you can make a strawberry-rhubarb version. If you chose to alternate strawberry and rhubarb when you build the cake, you’ll have an extra rhubarb purée stash (see sidebar for ideas of what to do with it). The light, crispy texture of our Vanilla Dreams cookies works nicely for this cake; press them nice and flat before baking.
This is a luxurious dessert for very little work; the hardest part is the waiting while the refrigerator does the work! You can make individual cookie stacks for party desserts, or two longer logs, side by each as my husband would say.
Do you rhubarb?
When your rhubarb pops up, don’t forget the technique of sugaring and draining it. Wash and dice your stalks after trimming, and put them in a strainer or colander over a bowl. Sprinkle with granulated sugar (about 1/2 cup of sugar for every 2 cups of diced rhubarb), and let the stalks drain.
You’ll catch beautiful pink, sweet-tart rhubarb juice in the bowl (mix with seltzer, freeze in cubes for margaritas or lemonade, or make a very special martini). Bake or freeze the drained rhubarb as you would for any recipe; you’ll find it works better after taking away some of the water.
My rhubarb plants have been going to town lately, and I keep bags of frozen, diced pie plant on hand. I stew the stuff (1 pound of rhubarb to 1 cup of sugar) and use it to flavor my plain Greek yogurt, my oatmeal, and to plop on top of French toast.
Cookies
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baker’s ammonia or 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter
- 2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
Filling
- 4 cups (17 ounces) rhubarb, washed and diced in 1/2" pieces
- 1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) sugar, divided
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoon Instant ClearJel or cornstarch
Whipped cream
- 2 cups (16 ounces) heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Fresh strawberries for garnish (optional)
For the cookies
Preheat the oven to 300˚F. Lightly grease two baking sheets, or line with parchment. In a small bowl, combine the vanilla, baker’s ammonia, and salt. Stir to dissolve the ammonia; the salt won’t fully dissolve.
Place the butter, sugar, and vanilla mixture in the bowl of your mixer and beat until smooth. Add the flour and mix to combine. The dough will seem dry at first; continue mixing until the dough comes together. Scoop the dough with a teaspoon scoop and place on the prepared baking sheets. Press the tops down with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar to make flat cookies about 1/4" thick. Bake for about 25 minutes, until the cookies are very light golden brown. Remove from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool.
For the filling
Place the rhubarb, 1 cup of the sugar, nutmeg and orange zest in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until some of the liquid cooks away. Combine the remaining sugar and ClearJel and stir into the mixture. Return to a boil and cook for 1 more minute, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens. If using cornstarch, combine it with the sugar and 2 tablespoons of cold water, stirring until no lumps remain. Stir this mixture into the simmering rhubarb and cook until the filling returns to a boil and is no longer cloudy. Remove from the heat and cool before assembling the cake.
For the whipped cream
Place the cream in a chilled mixing bowl with the sugar. Whip (slowly at first, until the cream begins to thicken, then accelerate) until the whip tracks are visible in the bowl. Add the vanilla and continue beating until the cream is stiff but not curdled.
To assemble the cake
Spread a tablespoon of rhubarb filling on top of a cookie, then place another cookie on top. Continue this process until you have 4 cookies stacked up. Lay the stack on its side on a serving plate. Repeat until you’ve used all the cookies. You can place 2 logs side by side, or form the cookies into a circle or any other shape you like. You can make individual cakes, too, for a special occasion or brunch.
Cover the entire cake with whipped cream, taking care that no cookies are left exposed. Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight before serving. Garnish with a fresh strawberry, if desired.
- Yield:
- 1 large cake or 12 individual cakes made with 4 cookies each.
Nutrition information per serving (140g)
- 444
- calories ,
- 3g
- protein ,
- 53g
- carbohydrates ,
- 25g
- fat ,
- 1g
- fiber ,
- 16g
- saturated fat ,
- 1g
- trans fat ,
- 79mg
- cholesterol ,
- 188mg
- sodium
- 37g
- sugars ,
- 4mg
- vitamin C ,
- 1mg
- iron ,
- 93mg
- calcium
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus:
- 12 Points.
Exceptional Pie Crust DVD
King Arthur Flour presents everything you need to know to make exceptional pie crust. Susan Reid, the editor of The Baking Sheet, demonstrates several techniques and crust recipes, seasoned with a bit of humor. Susan and instructors from King Arthur’s Baking Education Center will help you approach the process of making pie pastry with confidence.
Learn about:
- cookie, oil, and whole-grain crusts
- making slab and mini pies
- blind baking, and much more
This disk includes printable pdf files of all the recipes demonstrated. With some help from King Arthur, your next pie will be one you’ll be proud of. Running time 75 minutes, plus bonus materials.
