The clean out continues: rhubarb coffee cake

Yes, we've had a bit of a diversion for some interesting recipes, based on fresh ingredients, which is ultimately the main point of this exercise; however, another is using the stuff that you have cleverly saved up from prior seasons (You DID remember to freeze a few things, didn't you? Well, dont' forget this year!!!).
Last May, when I found the first rhubarb of the season, I wrote at length about what a wacko I must seem to people. And indeed, that was the case with most. NOT ALL, but most. There was a good handful of folks who, when they heard that I had found rhubarb, were down at the market in an hour to get theirs. I love rhubarb. I love its color, I love its excess tartness, and I love how it can work for you in a lot of different ways. And if left to my own devices, I would freeze tens of pounds of it. Last year, vacation intervened. I got my first rhubarb on May 5. We left for vacation about two weeks after that, and by the time we came back, more market stuff was coming in. Indeed, I let rhubarb take a backseat last spring and summer, and only froze about 4 pounds of it. As part of the freezer clean up, I broke out the last bags of it this past week, and made a favorite cake of mine. This is a BEAUTIFUL cake. But, before we get there....
I got this recipe from a publication from King Arthur Flour, called "The Baking Sheet." There was a time, when I was first learning how to bake (I'm still learning), when I followed The Baking Sheet like a sacred text. If it was in their pages, I made it. And this is a good exercise for those of you who are BEGINNING to cook, or those of you who have cooked for a while and are branching out into a different area. Find a source that you trust, or that someone who trust recommends, and cook your way through it. You don't necessarily have to make every single recipe, but make a bunch of them. And then, do something that is very "risky" in a certain sense: trust your taste. You're the cook. If you don't like it, don't make it again. Stop worrying about what other people like or don't like. ONE big exception to this. If you have a really good friend who loves something you don't, well, bite the bullet. But for everyday, you HAVE TO TRUST YOUR TASTE. If you don't like the recipe, don't make it again. If you do, mark it and come back to it. Don't listen to anyone else but your palette. That's how this rhubarb cake came into my repertoire.

Let's start with the filling. You need a pound of rhubarb. You also need 3/4cup of sugar and a good 3.5 tablespoons of cornstarch. That's a lot of cornstarch, but you are going to need a very stiff filling.

They tell me you can microwave this to make the filling. I don't have a microwave, so I'm telling you how I made it. I was working with frozen, so I thawed the rhubarb. Then I tossed the sugar and cornstarch with it, and put it in a 2 quart pot. I covered it, turned the heat to low, and went away for ten minutes, to make my batter. When I came back, the stuff had cooked down to a thick pink mass, with a few pieces of solid rhubarb left. That's exactly what you want. As it cools down, the solid pieces will collapse into the filling too. (you can stop here, by the way, and eat this as it is. It's GOOD. You can put it in the middle of a muffin, you can spread it on pancakes, it's just wonderful (And I'm wondering if I can do this with other fruits, too. I always see those huge tubes of cake fillings in my baking store and now I'm thinking... Hmmmmmm."

Ok, enough musings. TO THE CAKE OF THE MATTER. You need a heaping two cups of flour, 3/4 cups of sugar a stick and a half of unsalted butter, and a whole bunch of little things:

a teaspoon of cinnamon (which you can leave out)
.5 teaspoons of baking soda
a teaspoon of baking powder
.25 teaspoon of salt (Don't leave this out)
an egg
a teaspoon of vanilla
3/4 cup of buttermilk, or yogurt, or sour cream if you're feeling really rich and festive.

The recipe also calls for orange oil, which I leave out because I feel it interferes with the rhubarb.

Preheat your oven to 350. Oil a springform pan, or one that you can take the bottom out of. 9 inches is the right size.

Mix the flour and sugar together, and then add the butter. Cut it in, as if you were making pie crust. I do it in the food processor, but do it however you like. After you've done that, take out half a cup and put it aside. Now add everything else in the order listed above. If you do it in the food processor, you'll see this all come together as a very thick wet mess, and you'll be convinced you did something wrong.

You did NOT. Scrape about 2/3 of this stuff into the pan and get your hands slightly damp and spread it out, all over the bottom and up the sides as much as you can. Now add that rhubarb right in the center. Take the rest of the wet batter and drop it on, as if you were making biscuits. Finally sprinkle the dry stuff over it. Put the whole thing in the oven, and bake it for 45 minutes or so.

You SHOULD peek at this as it bakes. The sides come up, forming something like a "shoulder. The dolloped batter spreads, and the dry stuff browns a bit, just like your favorite part of the coffee cake.

Let it cool. Then you do, you get the most amazing magenta pink colored filling you could imagine. Just looking at it will make you smile. Eating it will make you smile even more, especially if you have some vanilla ice cream along side of it (creme fraiche ice cream, in my humble opinion would be even better, but you'd have to make that yourself).

This will make about 12 nice sized servings. And, since I have it, I'll give you this information: if you do cut it into 12 pieces, they come in at just under 300 calories per serving. The fat content, if you don't use sour cream, is less than 1/3 of the calories. As far as cakes go, it's pretty good for you. You get some vitamin c, you get minerals from the rhubarb, so it's not that bad a deal.

Good supermarkets do sell bags of frozen rhubarb from time to time. If you find it, get some and go for it. Push spring a little.