Robert Wemischner

Yield: Serves 4 generously

After winter’s seemingly interminable chill, you must believe that spring is on its way when those ruby red stalks of rhubarb start brightening market shelves. And when they do appear, I’m ready to stew, poach, bake or pan roast them in a heartbeat. Here, coupled with a sauce featuring winter citrus flavors, a hint of warming aromatic cinnamon, and encrusted with a crumbly buttery topping, homey and rustic are the words that come to mind. Served warm, scooped out of a baking dish in irregular-shaped portions, set on a generous pool of cold custard sauce,  this is heaven in a bowl.  Make the sauce first so that it can chill and its flavors can settle and mellow.  And then, a couple of hours, at most, before you wish to serve the crumble, pull together the short list of ingredients for the fruit and the topping, bake immediately or refrigerate until ready to bake. (Depending how long the unbaked crumble chills, you may need to add a few extra minutes of baking time to achieve bubbling, golden perfection.) This is a dessert that is best served fresh, within an hour or two after it emerges from the oven, fragrant, golden and bubbling.

For the Cinnamon-citrus custard sauce:

Peel from 1 orange, 1 tangerine and 1 small grapefruit (the colored parts of the peel only)

8 ounces (one cup) whole milk

2 ounces (approximately 1/3 cup) granulated sugar

3 ounces egg yolks (from 5 large eggs, approximately)

2 cinnamon sticks

Remove the peel (avoid the white under-layer called the pith) from the citrus fruits and set aside. In a large, heavy saucepan, bring the milk, half of the sugar, the peel and the cinnamon sticks to a boil. Once boiled, remove from the heat and allow the mixture to infuse for about 15 minutes. Then pour through a fine sieve, discarding the solids. Place the strained liquid back into the saucepan and heat again until hot. Whisk the remaining sugar and egg yolks together until the sugar mostly dissolves and the mixture lightens in color. Pour half of the heated milk over the egg mixture and whisk to blend. Skim off and discard any bubbles. Then pour the mixture into the saucepan and stir, using a wooden spoon, until the mixture reaches 180 degrees F. Do not aerate but be sure that you stir deeply into the corners and bottom of the saucepan to cook the eggs evenly throughout the mixture.  When the mixture has reached temperature, immediately pour it through a fine-meshed sieve into a clean stainless steel bowl. Place the bowl over another larger bowl half filled with ice and water and stir to cool quickly. When cool, transfer the custard to a container with a tight fitting lid. Place in the refrigerator until ready to serve the dessert.

For the Crumble topping:

4 ounces (1-1/2 cup) rolled oats

4 ounces (scant cup) all-purpose flour

2 ounce (4 T.) granulated sugar

2 ounce (4 T.) brown sugar

1 t. ground cinnamon

Pinch salt

4 ounces unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Place the oats, flour, both sugars, cinnamon and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer outfitted with the paddle attachment. On low speed, combine all of the ingredients, mixing until well blended. Add the butter and mix just until the mixture resembles pebbles. Do not over mix or the mixture will turn into a paste.

Note:  The crumble topping recipe above exhibits the following proportions of ingredients, which are standard for this kind of preparation:

The total dry ingredients, by weight, in this case, the oats and the flour, are equal to the total weight of the butter plus the sugar, in this case, granulated sugar and brown sugar.

 For the Rhubarb: 

12 ounces rhubarb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (3 large pieces, each approximately 17  inches long by 1/2 inch wide)

4 ounces (generous 1/2 cup) granulated sugar

Grated orange zest from 1 medium sized orange

1 ounce unsalted butter, cut into small bits, plus 1/2 ounce for greasing the baking dish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the rhubarb, sugar, zest and 1 ounce of butter bits in a medium sized bowl. Mix until the fruit is evenly coated. Butter the bottom and sides of 1-1/2 quart baking dish with the remaining butter. Pour the fruit mixture into the butter dish and then top with the Crumble. Bake for approximately 35 to 45 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling around the edges of the dish.

For an optional enrichment of the custard:

At the last minute, you may lighten the custard sauce by whipping 1/2 c. of whipping cream to soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the chilled custard, pour a pool of the sauce into each bowl and place the Crumble on top of the sauce. Garnish, as described below, if desired, and serve immediately.

Optional powdered sugar and rhubarb garnish:

1/4 cup (approximate) powdered sugar

 

1 stalk rhubarb, cut into 3 inch long pieces and then sliced lengthwise into paper-thin ribbons

1 cup simple syrup (made by boiling 1 cup granulated sugar with 1 cup water just until the mixture is clear)

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

Bring the syrup to a simmer and add the rhubarb. Simmer on low heat just to soften the fruit slightly. Carefully remove the fruit from the syrup and for each garnish, directly onto a silicone baking mat (these are indispensable in the kitchen as virtually nothing sticks to them; available through www.demarle.com), braid 6 pieces at right angles to each other, overlapping the ribbons to create a woven pattern, as desired. Repeat to yield 4 garnishes. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the fruit feels dry but is not browned. Allow to cool thoroughly (the garnish will crisp up when cool but soften after a few hours if left at room temperature. If you wish to keep them crisp longer, place them in a single layer in an airtight container). Then just before serving, is desired, sift powdered sugar on top of the Crumble and position one rhubarb garnish on top of, or to the side of, each dessert.