Radish Dip - The Colors of Summer and a Retro Feeling

Summertime, radish time. Radishes (“Radieschen”) are very popular around here. People love to eat them with their sandwiches, as a snack with some salt, at dinner time, at lunch time, all the time. And I had my share of them when I was growing up. I always liked their sharp taste and their crunchiness. We always ate them raw, never cooked.

People used to carve radish roses and put them on the dinner table or display them prominently on the buffet table. But how many different ways can you carve and cut up a radish. Nowadays, at our house, we eat them roasted, cooked or braised and I have even grilled some. I will put them on Asian inspired salads or make them part of an antipasti platter but, somehow, it had never occurred to me to use them in a dip, so when I saw the recipe for Radish Dip,  I just had to give it a try. I bought two bunches of the round red radishes for this dip.

There are so many radish varieties in the stores and markets these days. They are available in spring, summer and fall. There are white, red, or violet ones, long ones, round ones. They carry such fancy names as “White Iciles”, “Purple Plum”, “Spanish Black” or “China Rose”.

But the widely popular little red ones (also called “Cherry Belles”) seem to be best suited for this dip. The recipe for the Radish Dip is extremely easy and quickly prepared – I chose to use one of my favorite oils, extra virgin lemon olive oil, instead of the lemon zest and it was delicious. According to the owner of the local oil mill (yes, there is one in the City of Bonn), lemon olive oil was discovered in Italy “by chance”. After the olive oil was pressed, the owners of the mills used lemons “to clean” the millstones and when they carried on with the oil making process, the olive oil had a delicious, citrusy smell, hence, the lemon olive oil was born.

Radish Dip
(as adapted from Martha Stewart Living, May 2012)


Ingredients for the Radish Dip


Two bunches of red radishes (about 25), julienned, plus whole radishes, for serving
1 1/4 cups sour cream
3 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp extra virgin lemon olive oil (you can also use the zest of  one lemon and then skip the oil)
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh dill


Preparation

1. Combine the julienned radishes, sour cream, feta, lemon olive oil (if using) and juice, salt, and dill.
2. Put in the fridge for about an hour while you prepare the Zucchini and Summer Squash Fritters
3. Serve with whole radishes and cucumbers and/or as a topping for the Fritters.








The Radish Dip is also nice as a topping/dip for some delicious Zucchini and Summer Squash Fritters – we loved them . A bit more time consuming to prepare than the Dip but well worth a little bit of effort. You can also prepare them for a crowd and keep them warm in the oven for a while.












Zucchini and Summer Squash Fritters 
(as adapted from Martha Stewart Living, March 1999)

Ingredients for the Zucchini Fritters

1 medium zucchini
1 medium summer squash
1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp freshly grated lemon zest (from an organic lemon)
10 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley, stems removed and leaves finely chopped,
1 medium clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs (L) lightly beaten (organic or free range if possible)
1/2 cup AP flour




Preparation

1. Using the large holes of a box grater, grate the zucchini and squash into a medium bowl.
2. Add the salt, lemon zest, chopped parsley, garlic, pepper, and eggs. Mix well to combine.
3. Slowly add flour, stirring so no lumps form.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat.
5. Carefully drop about 2 tablespoons zucchini/sqush mixture into pan; repeat.
6. Cook the fritters until they are golden, 2 to 3 minutes.
7. Reduce the heat to medium. Turn fritters, and continue cooking until golden, 2 to 3 minutes more.
8. Transfer the fritters to a plate and set aside in a warm place.
9. Cook the remaining zucchini mixture, adding more oil to the pan if necessary.
10. Serve with Radish Dip and vegetables. You can also serve them with lemon wedges.

We all thought that the Radish Dip together with the Fritters and some summer veggies made a wonderful and light summer dinner/lunch and besides I finally got to use my “retro” style of serving dish (with veggies décor) that I found at a flea market a few weeks ago! It reminds me of the those radish roses...

French Fridays with Dorie - Salmon with Basil Tapenade

This week´s recipe for the French Friday`s with Dorie group is Salmon with Basil Tapenade. The ingredients for this dish already sounded delicious to me. What is not to like about a recipe that requires you to use fresh salmon, homemade black olive tapenade, basil, lemon, pepper, salt and some olive oil.

My fishmonger had wonderful Norwegian salmon and he cut perfect fillets from the thick center portions (no filleting any flounder required for this recipe, and I was relieved). I ended up buying enough fish to feed eight people, it was easy to double the recipe. I prepared the black olive tapenade and added fresh basil, lemon juice, pepper and fine sea salt. Since I made the tapenade with extra virgin lemon olive oil, I did not add lemon zest to the mix. I cut two pockets in each piece of salmon, filled the incisions with the basil tapenade, gave each piece a “little massage” (that was Dorie´s idea, not mine!) and cooked the salmon exactly as specified in the recipe.

I served the salmon with miniature new potatoes, more of the lemon olive oil, extra tapenade and a small purslane salad. All of the taste testers were extremely pleased with the way the salmon tasted and loved the taste of the tapenade, mini potatoes and purslane salad together with the fish. This recipe is definitely a keeper and it scored extra points for ease of preparation. This is simply a wonderful recipe!


What a treat!

Purslane (“Portulak”) - since I love the taste and look of this unusual salad, here is a wonderful quote with respect to purslane that I found  while doing a bit of research on salad recipes: “ You might run across purslane, with its glossy, plump leaves, at a farmers market—and you might even find it growing in the cracks of your sidewalk or in your yard. Luckily, this incredibly nutritious and juicy green is a weed, which means it pops up wild nearly everywhere”. Ian Knauer, Gourmet, August 2008

To see how the other Doristas prepared the Salmon with Basil Tapenade, please click here.

Chunky Peanut, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Cookies. And "Blanche Dael". And, tadaa!, my 100th blog post.

One of my favorite cookies to bake are “Chunky Peanut, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Cookies”. They certainly are crowd pleasers. The cookies combine three wonderful flavors that remain recognizable in the baked cookies. They are ever so slightly crunchy on the outside, even more so,  if you choose not to chop the peanuts too finely and they are moist and chewy in the middle, not dry. Just the way we like our cookies.

As is the case with all recipes, the better quality ingredients that you use, the more flavorful the cookies will taste. Apart from a really good peanut butter and good quality chocolate, I love to use freshly roasted peanuts. The original recipe calls for salted peanuts but we prefer unsalted nuts in our cookies.

People enjoy eating nuts and love to snack on salted peanuts. It is a popular habit to nibble on this snack while watching television. The nuts can be found everywhere in vacuum sealed plastic or foil packages as well as in tins but not freshly roasted. There are not too many places around here that roast fresh peanuts right in the store in front of your eyes.
But we found a wonderful place while we were visiting Maasstricht, a city that I have mentioned a few times before in my blog and that we love to visit quite often. It is situated on both sides of the Meuse - Maas (Dutch) river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border.

The store is called “Maison Blanche Dael”, a Maastricht-based coffee roasting company (www.blanchedael.nl). As I mentioned in one of my previous posts ("Bookshop made in heaven"), this coffee roasting and tea packaging company was founded in 1878 and, to this day, is a purveyor to the Royal Dutch Household. In addition to selling coffee, tea, sweets, chocolate and whimsical teapotts and cups, Blanche Dael is also famous with the locals as well as tourists for roasting peanuts in their coffee roasting maschine.

Customers are always intrigued by the fact that the store roasts nuts as well as coffee beans and enjoy watching the roasting process and the smell when they enter the store. I always make sure to buy a few bags of the peanuts for munching on during the drive back home for baking and for gift giving. And I just love the way the store´s paper bags look like, kind of old-fashioned, in a good and familiar kind of way.

Once I bring the peanuts home, I make sure to shell and chop them the day after I bought them…

… I believe that they taste the best when used as soon as possible.

Chunky Peanut, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Cookies
(as adapted from Martha Stewart Living November 2005 and Martha Stewart´s Cookies, published March 11, 2008, page 179)


Ingredients for the Cookies

2 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, preferably from Ceylon
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (I used Calvé peanut butter, a Dutch brand – www.calve.nl)
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup superfine sugar
2 eggs (L), free range or organic
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I did not use chocolate chips but chopped Lindt Excellence 70% )
2/3 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped (I always use unsalted and freshly roasted nuts)
1 package pure vanilla sugar or 2 tsp pure vanilla extract


Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, sea salt, and ground cinnamon in a medium bowl.
3. Put the butter and peanut butter in the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on medium speed until combined, about two minutes.
4. Add the light-brown and white sugars and mix for about two minutes.
5. Mix in the eggs.
6. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
7. Fold in the chocolate, peanuts, and vanilla until well distributed.
8. Refrigerate the dough until it is slightly firm, about 15 minutes.
9. Roll dough into 1-inch balls (I always use an ice cream scoop instead) and space the dough balls 2 to 3 inches apart on your baking sheets lined with unbleached parchment paper or silpat mats.  If you wish, flatten the dough slightly (I do not find that step necessary) and chill the remaining dough while baking one sheet at a time.
10. Bake until just golden, about 11 to 13 minutes,depending entirely upon your oven but do be careful not to overbake or the cookies will become too dry.
11. Transfer the baked cookies to wire racks to cool  - no need to let them cool completely, they taste delicious while they are still a bit warm.
12. Serve with milk or tea and enjoy.



I absolutely love this recipe. The cookies are delicious and have a great peanut flavor. The whole family enjoys them and they are easy to make. 

It is nice to be able to use freshly roasted peanuts from a place that you know but, of course, that is not absolutely necessary and you can play around with this recipe a bit too by using a different chocolate, for example, or you could choose to use salted peanuts and chop them as coarsely or finely as you wish.

And if you prefer peanut butter cookies without chocolate but with a twist, like a well-known hazelnut spread, you could also try the Peanut Butter and Nutella Cookies.

Serve these cookies with a tall glass of milk or some tea or with vanilla ice cream or just as a snack. Whichever way you choose to serve them, I am sure that these cookies will be a success!

Tuesdays with Dorie - Semolina Bread

Today`s recipe for the Tuesdays with Dorie group is „Semolina Bread“, a recipe that was contributed by author, teacher and baker extraordinaire Nick Malgieri.

The recipe itself is not long and seemed rather uncomplicated. Apart from yeast, all purpose flour, salt, and olive oil, the main ingredient of the bread is semolina flour, a flour often associated with Italian breads, it is a flour milled from durum wheat, it is yellow in color and the very flour used for pasta making. The obvious store to get this flour was my favorite Italian store. I have often bought semolina flour before (I use it for pasta making and for baking cakes) but for this bread, I needed to replenish my stock.

The preparation, although somewhat of a lengthy process, was easy enough. After you prepare the sponge and wait two hours for it to rise and double in volume, you add the remaining ingredients, mix everything together for a few minutes, put the dough into an oiled bowl and then you wait for about another two hours for it all to double in volume (first rise), then you deflate and shape, transfer to a baking sheet and wait another two hours until the dough doubles in bulk again (second rise). Then you slash lines on the sides of the loaf and then you finally get to bake the bread for about 35 minutes. Of course, I had to use a really sharp kitchen knife for the “slashing” since I was fresh out of razor blades. I must say that the bread did smell wonderful while baking.

All sounds not too complicated but somehow, without a picture, I really did not know how this bread was supposed to look like. Not that I had never seen semolina bread before but this particular one was a bit of a mystery to me. I should also add that semolina bread is not a bread readily available at the bakeries around here unless you can find one of the very few bakeries that specializes in Italian breads.

So, I ended up having to bake the bread twice. The second time the semolina bread just looked better that my first try, not as flat, more bread like and a little bit more, well, photogenic.

I served the bread with a wonderful light olive oil for dipping (the same one that I used for the dough, although only one tablespoon was required) and some delicious green and black olives. The taste testers loved nibbling on this bread and agreed that I should bake this again sometime. And I will bake it again because although I was not all that happy with the "looks" of this bread, I loved the way the bread tasted, fresh and toasted, the day after it was baked.

Our gracious hosts for today's recipe are Renee of The Way to My Family´s Heart and Anna of Keep it Luce - a big Thank You to both!

To see how the other Doristas prepared the Semolina Bread, please click here.

"Happy Bastille Day!" - "Joyeux Quatorze Juillet!"

Why don´t you celebrate this years “Bastille Day" -  "Quatorze Juillet " with a wonderful Coconut Cake with Berries and Cream, similar to a Tres Leches Cake but with a coconutty twist – it is a wonderful cake to celebrate the French National Holiday on the Fourteenth of July!

I found this recipe in the July 2012 edition of Martha Stewart Living. It was featured as part of the Fourth of July celebration menu but I thought it would be just as fitting for a French Fourteenth of July celebration menu. Whatever day you celebrate, this cake is an absolute winner!

Coconut Cake with Berries and Cream
(as adapted from Martha Stewart Living, July 2012)

Ingredients for the Cake

1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for pans
6 eggs (L), separated (organic or free range, if possible)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 cup superfine sugar
1 package of pure vanilla sugar or 2 tsp of pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup flaked unsweetened coconut, toasted and finely ground
1 cup AP flour, divided
2 cups heavy cream, divided
1 can (13.75 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
3 cups mixed fresh berries (I used blueberries, strawberries and raspberries but blackberries or other fruit would be just as delightful)

Preparation

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and generously butter a 9-by-13-inch glass baking pan.
2. Whisk together the egg whites, baking soda, and salt in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment on medium speed, until soft peaks form, four to five minutes.
3. Add the egg yolks to the egg-white mixture, and whisk until completely combined.
4. Gradually add sugar, vanilla sugar (or extract) and whisk until combined.
5. Fold in the melted butter and the finely ground coconut with a large rubber spatula.
6. Sift 1/4 cup flour onto the mixture and fold to combine. Repeat with the remaining flour, folding in 1/4 cup at a time.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared glass baking pan and bake the cake until it is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.
8. Meanwhile, whisk together one cup of heavy cream, the coconut milk, and the condensed milk.
9. As soon as the cake is removed from the oven, pour the cream mixture over the cake.
10. Let the cake cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
11. Cover the cooled cake with some plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least five hours and up to eight hours (I found five hours to be quite sufficient).

Serving

Just before serving, whisk the remaining cup of heavy cream until soft peaks form, and spread over the cake. Serve with mixed berries, some on top, the rest on the side.

"Happy Bastille Day!" -  "Joyeux Quatorze Juillet!"

French Fridays with Dorie: Blueberry-Mascarpone Roulade - And a morning spent blueberry picking

This week`s recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group is Blueberry-Mascarpone Roulade. At first glance, the recipe seems rather long with a lot of different steps but after the second read, it becomes obvious that this is not a complicated recipe at all but a simple, summery recipe for a cake filled with blueberries and a cream.

Since this is a roulade filled with blueberries, the most important ingredient to get is, of course, the blueberries and what better activity for a summer´s day than to pick blueberries with all the kids involved in the action. So we packed up the car and drove to the one and only blueberry farm that I am aware of. It is about a thirty minute drive and we go there once a year to pick three huge baskets full of delicious, wonderful blueberries.

So this year we went blueberry picking a little earlier than in previous years but with that roulade in mind and all the other lovely blueberry dishes that will make an appearance at our house soon, nobody complained. Even the weather was perfect.

Back home, the roulade was quickly made, I usually bake a strawberry roulade and I do not find it particularly difficult or intimidating to bake this jelly roll style of cake. It was easy to follow the directions in Dorie´s recipe and the cake turned out wonderful and light, just the way we like it. While the cake was cooling, the blueberries had to be dropped in hot sugary syrup to soften and sweeten them ever so slightly. After cake and berries were cool enough, I folded the blueberries into the mascarpone and cream, spread the cream onto the cake, rolled the cake up and put it into the frigde to set for a while. All that was left to do before we devoured the cake, was to dust it with confectioner´s sugar. I then plated it and it was gone in about fifteen minutes.

We all adored this cake, it was wonderful with afternoon tea (I loved Earl Grey tea with this cake). It is just a marvelous cake, not too sweet and very pretty. It was fun reading through Dorie´s recipe and all of the “bonnes idées” and preparing the cake and the end result was just delicious. I followed the recipe to the letter and I would not hesitate to make this again, for a special occasion as well as an every day treat and it was well worth the extra effort of picking fresh blueberries!

Voilà! - Enjoy!

Biscoff Oatmeal Cookies - Wonderful with Summer Fruits

Those Biscoff Oatmeal Cookies are quite wonderful alongside the "flat" peaches, "sugar apricots" and "mini flat nectarines" that I found at the market a few days ago - I do not really know how they are all properly called in English, but these apricots, peaches (did you see these on the cover of the August issue of "Martha Stewart Living" Magazine?) and nectarines are not only sweeter that the "regular kinds" but are also much prettier.

And Biscoff Cookies, well, a lot of people are raving about the Biscoff Spread. A few months ago,  I also made the Bicscoff Oatmeal Cookies and already posted the recipe for these Cookies (see my post), so there is only pictures today.

When we are in the Netherlands, I always buy a few jars of the famous Biscoff Spread and I have since learned that a similar spread is also available from an American company as "Cookie Spread" or "Speculoos Cookie Butter".

 The European Biscoff Spread is now available in two kinds, regular and crunchy, with little pieces of Biscoff Cookies throughout the Spread, delicious! When I made them the first time, I added 3.5 ounces (100 g) Côte d´Or chocolate to the cookie dough and used the regular Biscoff Cookie Spread. This time,  I decided to leave out the chocolate and use the crunchy Biscoff Spread. My taste testers told me that the Biscoff Oatmeal Cookies turned out to be even a bit more wonderful with the crunchy Spread than with the regular Spread!

We liked the Cookies a lot when I made them the first time and we liked them even a bit more this time.

Serve the Biscoff Oatmeal Cookies alongside some fresh summer fruits and whether you will use the regular or crunchy Spread, add dark or white chocolate (as some bakers do) you will not regret having tried this easy and delicious cookie recipe! Just make sure not to use add ins that will overpower the distict taste of the Speculoos cookies that comes from adding the Spread and some additional cinnamon. And, again, as I often mentioned already,when using cinnamon in baked goods (or other fare) try to use good cinnamon, preferably from Ceylon.

Peanut Butter and Nutella Cookies - A Child´s Play

The summer vacation has finally started, six weeks filled with summer fun including some wonderful food. So in order to get things off to a good start, I decided to bake some delicious cookies for the kids.

The other day, I came across this recipe for Peanut Butter and Nutella Cookies and now that I was looking for a new recipe to try, I remembered having seen this recipe a while ago. These cookies seemed to be just perfect as a dessert for our little "Beginning of the Six-Week Summer Vacation Party".

Peanut Butter and Nutella Cookies
(recipe adapted from Sweetest Kitchen)

Ingredients for the Cookies

1 3/4 cups AP (plain) flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup peanut butter (you can use either smooth or crunchy, I used smooth)
1/2 cup sugar (I used superfine white sugar)
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 egg (L) room temperature (organic or free range organic, if possible)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used a package of pure vanilla sugar)
1/2 cup original Nutella (do not like the imitation brands)

Preparation of the Cookies


1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking Soda, and salt; Set aside.
2. In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the butter, peanut butter and both sugars.
3. Beat on medium speed until creamy and smooth (about 5 minutes).
4. Add the egg and vanilla extract or vanilla sugar and beat to combine, scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.
5. Turn the mixer down to low speed, and slowly add the dry ingredients and beat until just combined.
6. Use a large wooden spoon or rubber spatula to gently fold in the Nutella, try not to over-mix.
7. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least one hour (or longer).
8. Preheat the oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with (unbleached) parchment paper.
9. Measure out a rounded tbsp for each cookie. please note that the dough is rather crumbly and you will have to compact the dough somewhat before baking.
10. Use a fork to make a criss-cross pattern on each cookie (since the dough was so crumbly, I found this to be eassier after the cookies had "pre-baked"  for 3-4 minutes).
11. Bake for 8-9 minutes being careful not to overbake, they seem to turn bitter if left in the oven too long.
12. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for about 2 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.


Makes about 35-40 cookies.


The kids (and adults) loved these Peanut Butter and Nutella Cookies! They turned out to be the perfect treat for the wonderful first day of our summer vacation. Just one caveat:  try not to overbake them and make sure that you make smaller rather than larger cookies because they will not spread all that much in the oven and simply would not bake properly. And, as I mentioned before, if you like the criss-cross pattern, pre-baking seems like a good idea.



Enjoy!

Nigel Slater's Rhubarb Cinnamon Polenta Cake

The other day I found what must have been the last stalks of rhubarb available anywhere and when I saw them I remembered that I had been planning to bake Nigel Slater´s Rhubarb Cinnamon Polenta Cake one more time before all of the rhubarb has completely disappeared from the markets and I have to wait until next spring to be able to buy some more.

Rhubarb Cinnamon Polenta Cake
(as adapted from Nigel Slater's column in The Observer Magazine and “Ripe: A Cook in the Orchard”, published April 10, 2012)


Ingredients for the Rhubarb Filling
500g (1 pound) rhubarb
50g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
4 tbsp water

Ingredients for the Cake 

125g (1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp) medium or coarse cornmeal/polenta
200g (1 1/3 cups) AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, from Ceylon, if possible
150g (3/4 cup) superfine sugar
grated zest of a small organic orange
150 g (1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp) unsalted butter, diced
1 egg, L
2-4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp coarse sugar mixed together with some pure vanilla sugar

For Serving (optional)
Vanilla ice cream, whipped cream (that´s what the kids liked) or crème fraîche
A dusting of confectioner`s sugar

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and grease a 20cm / 8in cake pan, preferably loose-bottomed or springform.
2. Trim the rhubarb and cut into pieces a couple of inches long. Put them in a baking dish with the sugar and water and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the rhubarb is soft but still retains its shape.
3. Drain the fruit and set aside. Reserve the juice to serve with the cake.
4. Put the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar in a large bowl, or in the bowl of a food processor.
5. Add the grated orange zest and the butter. If using your hands, rub the butter in as if making pastry - until the mixture resembles large crumbs. If you are using a food processor you just need to process for a few seconds.
6. Break the egg into a small bowl and mix with the milk. Now add slowly to the crumble mix, stopping as soon as everything has come together to form a soft, sticky dough. You may not need all the liquid, or you may need a little more milk to get the right consistency.
7. Press about two thirds of the crumble mixture into the bottom of the cake pan, pushing the dough a bit up the sides of the pan. Place the rhubarb on top, being careful to leave a small rim around the edges uncovered.
8. Crumble the rest of the mixture over the fruit using your fingers - don't worry if the fruit isn't all covered. Scatter over the sugar/vanilla sugar mixture.
9. Bake the cake for about 40 to 45 minutes.
10. Cool the cake a few minutes before removing from the pan.
11. Dust with confectioner´s sugar (optinal).
12. Serve the cake with some whipped cream, crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream and the reserved rhubarb juice.

This simple little cake has a nice crunchy texture and is certainly not overly sweet. The kids liked it with some sweetened whipped cream, my husband and I preferred the crème fraîche/rhubarb juice version. If you like cornmeal and rhubarb, this is a good comfort food style of cake.