Sourdough Rhubarb Kuchen

I have a passion for those delicious German cakes that consist of a base of rich bread dough, a lovely layer of fruit, and a sweet crunchy buttery topping.  I've made some delicious versions over the years - Nigella Lawson has a really good Apple and Blackberry Kuchen in Nigella Bites, for instance - but I'm so into making naturally leavened bread these days that I really wanted to create something with a sourdough base.  I was also curious to see if it was possible to make an enriched sourdough, using egg and milk in the dough.  I think it works very well - but here's my recipe - have a go and tell me what you think.


Ingredients
(these are the totals - check the recipe to see how much you need to use at each stage)


100g wheat sourdough starter (mine is made according to the instructions in Bread Matters by Andrew Whitley)
100g plain wholemeal flour
200g strong white flour
1egg
80g milk
3g salt
250g rhubarb
100g plain flour
75g butter
100g granulated sugar


Stage 1
First you need to wake up your sourdough starter.  Put 100g of starter in a bowl and add 50g of strong white flour and 50g of plain wholemeal flour and 60g of lukewarm water.  Cover and leave in a warm place for 3-4 hours.


Stage 2
Mix together 150g strong white flour, 50g wholemeal flour, 3g salt, 1 egg and 80g milk and knead until you have nice soft dough (7-8 minutes, or quicker in a mixer with a dough hook).  Then add all the leaven from the first stage and knead together until soft and elastic.  If the dough is very sticky after a couple of minutes kneading then add an extra spoonful of flour.  Now cover the bowl and leave the dough to rest and relax for an hour.


Stage 3
Whilst your dough is resting prepare your toppings.  Wash and slice 250g of rhubarb thinly (0.5cm slices) on the diagonal, then put aside.  In a small bowl rub together 100g plain white flour (or wholemeal if you prefer) and 75g butter until you have a lovely lumpy crumble-type mixure.  Stir in a generous 100g of sugar - granulated is fine here and gives a nice crunchy texture.  You do need quite a bit of sugar to counteract the sourness of the rhubarb - if you are using a sweeter fruit (dessert plums would be delicious for instance) then use less sugar.  Line a large baking tin or tray with baking parchment.  I use a roasting tin that measures 30x25cm that works really well - I push the dough right up to the edges.


Stage 4
Chuck your dough onto your prepared tray and press it out so you have a rectangular shape that measures around 30x25cm - it really helps to wet your hands first!  Cover the surface with rhubarb and then sprinkle your crumbly topping over the top.  Put the tray into a large carrier bag (making sure the bag is nowhere near your kuchen or you will have a very sticky incident) and leave for about 2 hours to rise and become puffy.  About 90 minutes into the rising time pre-heat your oven to gas mark 5/190C.


Stage 5
Bake for around 40 minutes until the bread base is cooked through and the crumble topping is golden brown.


Leave to cool and then slice into squares & store in an airtight tin.  This is delicious for breakfast and keeps well for 2 or 3 days.

It's cold outside

But the forced rhubarb is with us again. A really welcome splash of colour in the doldrums of the year. Those nice people at Northern Harvest brought us some today.

Springtime: everything's getting going

As we continue to enjoy the forced rhubarb (some in a sponge pudding; the rest chopped up and added to vodka, as we did last year), our own rhubarb patch is putting on loads of growth. The weather seems to have turned a corner over the last couple of days (for now, at least!) and we're getting some nice spring sunshine.

We're just about keeping up with food for the blue tits and goldfinches, who seem to be visiting the garden most at the moment. And it's really time to get things moving in the garden. We've managed to construct one of our raised beds (3 more to go) and the seedlings who'll be moving into them later in the year all seem to be doing nicely. Here are some of them. First the broad beans:

Then the Bloody Butcher tomatoes:

The Greek Oregano's coming up well:

And finally, some beetroot. Really hope that these work well as we ate tons of beetroot last year:

A Tale of Two Rhubarbs

As you can see from the picture at the top of this post, the inhabitants of our rhubarb patch are just starting to poke their heads through the surface. To coddle them through the cold days of this winter, we mulched them generously with some of the spent compost from last year's tomato grow bags and hanging baskets. Can't wait for them to be ready for picking.

Mind you, the good thing about this time of year is that you get a delicious sneak preview of what's to come - a delicacy which brightens up this rather grey month. It looks like the forced rhubarb is now well in season, courtesy of our veg box (and more) people at Northern Harvest. I blogged a bit about this wonderful treat last year, when we had a ready supply of forced rhubarb courtesy of the much-missed apple stall on Cambridge's Sunday market. It was not too long ago when we finally finished up the shocking bright pink rhubarb vodka that I mentioned a year ago. Now we're working our way gradually through the two large bottles of vodka flavoured with non-forced rhubarb from our patch - one of which had some ginger added, both of which are fabulous with a nice ginger ale or beer. Back to forced rhubarb, it really is a welcome splash of colour in dull old February and it's probably the first real fruit treat of the year (if you don't count all those great English apples that continue through the winter).

It's even easier to get through the cold, dank days and the long evenings when you can enjoy a delicious crumble made with fresh forced rhubarb. We've got a good recipe that we'll add to this blog post when Ali at Craft Matters can get onto it. Crumble is one of our favourite puddings, when you can get that crucial balance of crunch and chew in the topping: in our recipe the texture is helped along with oats and sunflower seeds. It's great with custard, or even some double or clotted cream, if you're feeling in need of a real treat.