Friday, January 29, 2010

from NYC to you... Big Crumb Coffee Cake

I found this recipe via Smitten Kitchen and this is my second batch in a month....
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WARNING:
Keep this in the fridge:
1. Rhubarb can get a bit manky at room temp
2. There is an extra obstacle between you and the cake tin....

I think this would be nice with blueberries or raspberries or pears too?

‘Big Crumb’ Coffeecake with Rhubarb
Adapted from The New York Times 6/6/07

For the rhubarb filling:
1/2 pound rhubarb, trimmed
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

For the crumbs:
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, melted (this is about 125g)
1 3/4 cups cake flour (I was out and used all-purpose and it worked great)

For the cake:
1/3 cup sour cream
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour (ditto on the all-purpose flour–worked just fine)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons softened butter, cut into 8 pieces. (This is about 100g)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8-inch-square baking pan. For filling, slice rhubarb 1/2 inch thick and toss with sugar, cornstarch and ginger. Set aside.

2. To make crumbs [this step now updated, see comment #150] in a large bowl, whisk sugars, spices and salt into melted butter until smooth. Then, add flour with a spatula or wooden spoon. It will look and feel like a solid dough. Leave it pressed together in the bottom of the bowl and set aside.

3. To prepare cake, in a small bowl, stir together the sour cream, egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add butter and a spoonful of sour cream mixture and mix on medium speed until flour is moistened. Increase speed and beat for 30 seconds. Add remaining sour cream mixture in two batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition, and scraping down the sides of bowl with a spatula. Scoop out about 1/2 cup batter and set aside.

4. Scrape remaining batter into prepared pan. Spoon rhubarb over batter. Dollop set-aside batter over rhubarb; it does not have to be even.

5. Using your fingers, break topping mixture into big crumbs, about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in size. They do not have to be uniform, but make sure most are around that size. Sprinkle over cake. Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean of batter (it might be moist from rhubarb), 45 to 55 minutes. Cool completely before serving.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings (they must be piggies - this lasted a week - with US!)

I want to sit in THIS darling seat and eat it... my latest covet covet covet
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

waves of steel

We are at the fun end of designing new house...

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Stutchury job WITH sheep...

There is a fair bit of colourbond talk at the moment, and I LOVED playing the 'insta-painter' - you might like this too.

In the colourbond visualiser, I worked on a commercial shed, that has less sheep and is a little like our own shearing shed we are dreaming of.
Some colours:
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Fun no?

Saturday, January 23, 2010

41

outside it is 41.
Downstairs it is 25.
Upstairs it is cooking.

I just had the most amazing sensation - walking - the HEAT on my shins as I broke through the muggling hot air -STOP and feel nothing.... walk on and the HOT is back!!

This is how I feel:
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More here courtesy of Stephane...

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Oaky flogger

Rex was examining with great earnestness some rubber occy-straps at a local building supply shop.... "what are these?" I asked him: "OAKY-FLOGGERS"....

in case you are catching up, Oaky is our brown dog and I believe she would not know about floggings.

As i type, she is huddled in the corner evading a storm. Poor mong. I thought I would have a look through my old photos and find an ODE TO OAKY.

Enjoy
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purl me
pokey in da house
good dog
posing
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Thursday, January 7, 2010

bluff...

was the name of Ben Grant's ridgeback where i grew up in Boambee. Great name hey?

BLUFF - Also the name of this spot we like strolling to...
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This was (one of the ) wet days of summer...

We found some inadvertant GEOCACHE treasure by accident...
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Great spot for a picnic?
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Monday, January 4, 2010

Hilda

How many people are lucky enough to have a Grandma named HILDA
We were, until late December... She would have been 94 next month.
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Grandma was just too sweet. She was all scones and pineapple tarts, daffodils and snowdrops, farm eggs and birthday cards... We will miss her.