RHUBARB CRUMBLE SQUARES
A delicious bake making the most of this seasonal food
Equipment
- Scales
- mixing bowls
- chopping board or plate
- 20cm square baking pan or silicone mould
- Oven
Ingredients
Base & Topping
- 200 g butter softened
- 125 g caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 400 g wholemeal flour if preferred, use plain white flour
- 50 g ground almonds or oats
- 4 tbsp flaked almonds optional
Filling
- 400 g rhubarb washed and cut into 2.5cm chunks
- 1 tbsp custard powder or use flour
- 75 g caster sugar
Instructions
- Oven, 180c
- Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla, beating well. It will look curdled at this point but that is fine.
- Add the baking powder then 100g of the flour. Mix well until the ‘curdling’ has gone, then mix in the remainder of the flour to make a soft dough.
- Press 2/3 of this mixture (about 500g) into a greased/lined 20cm square deep baking pan (I used a silicone baking ‘pan’) and press down with a wet spoon. Keep wetting the spoon to avoid it sticking. Set this aside.
- Add the chopped rhubarb to a clean bowl with the custard powder or flour and the sugar. The custard powder not only adds a vanilla flavour, but helps to absorb some of the juices. Feel free to use flour or cornflour if you don't have custard powder. Toss well to mix then tip this over the dough base and spread out. Press down lightly.
- Add the 50g ground almonds (or oats) and flaked almonds, if using, to the remaining dough mixture and rub this in between your fingers to get a dough that is crumbly. Scatter this over the rhubarb and again, press down lightly.
- Bake for 40 - 45 mins until golden. Leave to cool fully in the pan before cutting into squares. If you want to eat this straight away, that is fine but the squares will fall apart slightly.The traybake squares can be stored in an airtight container for a couple of days, but will last a little longer if kept in the fridge (if they do last that long!)