407531 Sat Jun 02 17:50:43 -0700 2007 16 31 Home Cooking 0 2624228 Hi, Today I decided to enter a cookie baking contest next Sunday afternoon. Just by chance I happened to have gotten the Martha Stewart Baking DVD at the library just prior to making this decision. The DVD gave me the idea for my submission: Hungarian Rhubarb Shortbread Cookies ... a shortbread layer covered with a layer of homemade rhubarb jam and covered with another streusel-like topping. It is a bar cookie. My question revolves around the fact that I have never cooked with rhubarb. BTW, I am not obsessing about this contest. It is a local community contest for fun. I need to know what constitutes a good quality and sweet rhubarb? What am I looking for? Color or size of stalks? OR ... any ideas for killer cookies? I'm open to anything. I thought the rhubarb idea might tweak a "seldom done" vibe but other ideas are welcome. I absolutely love the Norman Rockwell Cookies in Maeda Heatter's [sp] first cookie cook ... very crunchy pecan thins. Sat Jun 02 17:50:43 -0700 2007 13794 SilverlakeGirl 1 2624506 by its nature, rhubarb is not sweet. it's profoundly sour. look for firm unblemished stalks, gone mostly red. strawberry and rhubarb is a classic pairing, so maybe that as a jam, rather than straight rhubarb. i don't know where your contest is, but rhubarb season here in new england is nearly done. Sat Jun 02 20:21:51 -0700 2007 2624228 30273 hotoynoodle 2 2624713 Oh my, I guess I really was asking for that. First, I have never even tasted rhubarb so I did not know it was sour, not sweet. Although sour is great! I'm in Los Angeles and am not sure it is available. Alternately, I did scrounge around Epicurious and found a recipe with over 100 reviews and still a 4-fork rating: Inside-Out Carrot Cake Cookies http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/109346 This may be the one! Sat Jun 02 22:48:40 -0700 2007 2624506 13794 SilverlakeGirl 3 2625654 Hey Silver, I think rhubarb is a midwestern deal, seems most people outside of here don't know all that much about it. It's sort of like celery in nature...except it's not u shaped - it's roughly round in shape. As kids, we were given a bowl of sugar to dip the sour stalks in. We used to steal them from people's gardens. ::grin:: They didn't mind! Anyways, Usually it's cooked down with sugar and strawberries to give it a sweet tangy taste. It's delicious in a strawberry rhubarb pie! Good luck. The combo of shortbread and rhubarb spread sounds divine. Sun Jun 03 12:58:50 -0700 2007 2624713 57801 lollya 4 2638876 Nah, I'm an Angeleno born and bred and my whole family has what amounts to a rhubarb fetish. Silverlake girl -- you can often buy rhubarb jam at Cost Plus or other import stores -- it's typically a french product. I don't remember having seen rhubarb in stores recently though. Thu Jun 07 10:53:51 -0700 2007 2625654 10669 Amuse Bouches 3 2625836 Our rhubarb season in the Pacific Northwest is still going strong. It works really well to buy a ton of it, wash it, cut it into pieces and freeze it. I made the rhubarb compote recipe from Epicurious last week, subbing orange juice and peel for lemon or lime, and served it with pecan shortcake also from Epicurious. The compote I could eat with a spoon, or with my finger. Who needs shortcake? I highly recommend it! I think rhubarb crumble cookies sound fantastic! Sun Jun 03 14:25:49 -0700 2007 2624713 42934 ScarletB 4 2626614 Last week I boiled down some rhubarb with sugar and lemon juice and zest. I ended up with two glorious treats: 1. compote - excellent on ice cream, swirled into yogurt, stolen in spoonfuls from the fridge. 2. a syrup that is intoxicatingly vibrant -- both in terms of color (heavenly pink) and flavor (bright and tart). I mix this with seltzer for my new favorite cocktail ever -- just lots of ice, the syrup, seltzer--- effervescent fizzy summer in a glass. Don't try adding mint or lime which will overpower the pure joyous flavor of the rhubarb. Your cookies sound awesome and I'm inspired to enter some local contests just for fun and to meet other cooking fiends. Good luck, and I'd love to hear how those cookies turn out. I'm also going to try to get some cooking DVDs at the library... :) Sun Jun 03 21:01:36 -0700 2007 2625836 56490 foxy fairy 3 2626722 Dear Silverlake Girl (I grew up in Silverlake (on the East side), do you really live there now? I probably already asked you this, but nostalgia sets in. Rhubarb is still available up here in the SF Bay Area. I saw some at Berkeley Bowl last week. If you cook it with sugar, it's tangy and delicious. The rhubarb I saw last week still looked very good. If you can find it, go for it. Sun Jun 03 22:09:16 -0700 2007 2624713 10245 oakjoan 2 2626764 I'm north of Boston and my rhubarb is still going strong. This evening I made stewed rhubarb to accompany the pork loin roast we had for dinner. A little water, 1/4 cup organic sugar and 6 stalks of the rhubarb, sliced. It was just enough for two people and delicious! Sun Jun 03 22:38:09 -0700 2007 2624506 75332 Gio 1 2625459 These certainly are not rhubarb cookies, but I just tried a new recipe today, and IMO, these are "killer cookies"...My son think they are even better than my chocolate chip ones...I found the recipe on the web...They are Granola and Dried Cherry Chocolate Chip cookies...The only adjustment I made was to increase the vanilla to one teaspoon, and I used the dark brown sugar....Delicious! Here is the website...Let me know if you like them!abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=News&id=3180139 Sun Jun 03 11:38:52 -0700 2007 2624228 71851 jinet12 1 2625512 Rhubarb is slimy and goopy. You may want to try making a tiny sample of your cookies per the recipe. Then see if they're the consistency you want. If they're too gelatinous, for the next go-round you could first dehydrate the rhubarb by itself in the oven for a bit. Sun Jun 03 11:57:58 -0700 2007 2624228 40486 Cinnamon 2 2625804 now I am hankering after rhubarb crumble and custard. Sun Jun 03 14:11:59 -0700 2007 2625512 22559 smartie 2 2626398 "Rhubarb is slimy and goopy." w00t? it's like celery in texture. once cooked with sugar it reduces to a sort of marmalade, but hardly slimy. Sun Jun 03 19:07:59 -0700 2007 2625512 30273 hotoynoodle 1 2625857 I think your cookie/bar idea would work (and be delicious) if you made a rhubarb jam like this one for the filling layer. http://www.kraftfoods.com/main.aspx?s=recipe&m=recipe/knet_recipe_display&u1=keyword&u2=rhubarb%20jam&u3=**10*13&wf=9&recipe_id=52011 It sets up firm and is sweet, not very sour at all, and would hold up well to baking. I make a similar bar using an almond shortbread, a layer of apricot jam, and then another layer of almond shortbread, topped with sliced almonds. Everyone loves it. Good luck! Sun Jun 03 14:34:01 -0700 2007 2624228 44952 dukegirl 1 2626542 If you have a sunny spot in your yard, ALWAYS plant some rhubarb because a rhubarb patch takes little maintenance and lasts fifty years or so, and it's quite attractive with big dark green leaves. Every spring it will provide you with an ever-increasing supply of bright red stalks that make lovely sauce, pies, and puddings. To those unfamiliar with it, rhubarb looks kind of like red celery but when you stew it for ten minutes with a little sugar it tastes like fruit. You can cut up the raw talks and freeze the pieces in plastic bags, no work at all. Don't eat the leaves. Sun Jun 03 20:24:08 -0700 2007 2624228 15521 Querencia 1 2626792 I have one remaining rhubarb plant from the four I planted a few years ago. They seem to like moderate weather, which isn't exactly the norm in the KC area. Anyway, when you're shopping for it, look for smaller, slimmer stalks if you can find them. These will be younger and more tender than the larger, thicker ones. The larger ones are fine, but you may find it necessary to peel them if they're fibrous. The stems are easy and quick to peel, though, as the skins come off in one long strip on each side, maybe three pieces per stalk in all. (This isn't exactly descriptive, b/c rhubarb stalks are an odd shape, sort of cylindrical with one flatter side.) One thing you definitely need to know--if there is any leaf on your stalk, cut if off completely and throw it out. The leaves are poisonous to people and pets. Rhubarb has a "bite" to it, I think because of oxalic acid--it's a slightly tannic, bitter quality. I actually like this about the flavor, because when it's sweetened, the flavor is pretty complex mixture of sweet/tart/bitter. It's complemented by acid or sweet foods, like oranges or strawberries. If you're making the shortbread cookies, have a look at Bill Neal's cookbook Biscuits, Spoon Bread, and Sweet Potato Pie. He has a recipe for a pie filled with rhubarb, oranges, and pecans, which I think would make a fantastic filling for your cookies. If you want to top it with a crumble, maybe leave the pecans out of the filling, but put them in the crumble topping over the filling and shortbread. That sounds like a winner for your contest. Reading over the recipe, you might think "What the...?" because he puts a chopped orange (minus the seeds) peel and all in a food processor, then mixes and cooks it stovetop with the rest of the ingredients. The peel softens as it cooks, and it's delish. The acids and tart/sweet combo would be fabulous next to a shortbread cookie. Sun Jun 03 23:06:34 -0700 2007 2624228 24126 amyzan 1 2638762 I totally forgot about this recipe I made a few years ago: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=268229 Rhubarb Custard Bars from Cooking Light. They are really good! I didn't use the whipped topping but just left the rhubarb on top and chilled a day in advance for a party. Thu Jun 07 10:27:01 -0700 2007 2624228 42934 ScarletB