Rhubarb-Strawberry Streuseltaler

Germany is famous for its "Streuselkuchen". We also love to put streusel, a sweet crumble topping, on fruit pies, cheesecakes and tarts. One item you can find in almost every bakery is the "Streuseltaler". Basically a free form tart from yeast dough topped with a huge amount of streusel, sometimes filled with custard and often with a sugar glaze. It's a great snack to take away.

Often these "Taler", which is another word for coin and resembles their shape, are also topped with fruit. They are my favorite kind. Mostly you will see peaches, but since rhubarb and strawberry are in season, I wanted to try this combo. They turned out great and will be best he day you baked them, when they are nice and crunchy.

Rote Grütze (Red Fruit Pudding) and a trip to the island of Sylt

Today I have a traditional German dessert for you, and it's the Rote Grütze. It is basically a fruit pudding thickened with tapioca pearls, and sometimes corn starch. You can use your favorite fruits and berries for this. The most popular choice is a mix of cherries, currants, strawberries and raspberries.

Rote Grütze is probably the most popular dessert on the island of Sylt, situated in the German North Sea. It is often served with heavy cream or crème anglais, but you can also serve it as a topping for waffles, cheesecakes, rice pudding or ice-cream.

Sylt is one of the popular spots for Germans to spend their holidays. A over 40 km long, unbroken chain of sandy beaches and mud flat makes up the island's coastline. There are many protected nature habitats for fishes and birds to feed and rest. Majority of the houses are decked with traditional north German thatch roofs which gives a very rustic characters to the island. There are also many, many fine restaurants. It also has some of Germany's most expensive real estate, and is also known as a place for the rich and famous. Therefor you can probably say that it has a similar feel to the Hamptons.

I am in love with this beautiful place. The landscape is unbelievable. Everyday we were greeted with a clear blue sky and refreshing ocean breeze. I felt connected with this island, even though I have not been there for a long time, probably because I am born in north Germany, not too far from Sylt.

Since the land is mostly flat, one of the most popular tourist activities is cycling. There are plenty of shops where you can rent bicycles. You can probably travel around the island that way within half a day or so. Where bikes are not accessible, it is still very comfortable to reach these destinations at walking pace. There are hiking trails for those who wish to experience nature.

Another regional icon for Sylt, and perhaps north Germany, is something called Strandkorb. It literally means "beach basket", but are basically the Cadillac of beach benches. Traditionally built with woven wickers, the Strandkorb comes with accessories such as sun shield, collapsible mini-tables, and pull-out foot rests. You can see these little boxes peppered over the island, and they are a very comfortable place for spending a day on the beach.

Rhubarb Cheesecake Muffins

Spring came quite late this year in Germany; our garden was still covered in snow six weeks ago, and I was worried when we would finally get to see the first rhubarb. Once the snow was gone, everything started growing in a hurry. My beloved rhubarb grew very nicely, and after a few weeks I was already able to harvest some for my baking.

Rhubarb is a very good ingredient for making cheesecakes since it makes them less sweet. I posted a recipe for a rhubarb cheesecake with a nice buttery crust before. This time I have decided to make them in muffin forms. The recipe is super quick and easy to make. They are not very sweet, so you might want to add more sugar to it if you want your cheesecake a little sweeter.

Rhubarb Meringue Pie

I wrote this post a little too late. Rhubarb season is pretty much over, at least in Germany. If you are lucky you might be able to pick up a couple stalks, however. If not, why not save the recipe for next year? I definitely will, since this was my favorite rhubarb cake this year.

A good indicator for a great cake is always if people who usually take care of their waistline take seconds, like my sweet cousin ;-). But the meringue is really heavenly and fits perfectly to the tart filling.

The recipe I used is from Martha Stewart. The original recipe uses only the juice from the rhubarb, but instead I used the whole compote. Rhubarb falls apart after it is cooked, so it still gave a very nice texture to the cake.

The cake reminds me a of a lemon meringue pie, which I always love, but when in season I will make the rhubarb version again.

Rhubarb Hazelnut-Meringue Cake

It's already the end of June and I haven't posted any rhubarb recipes yet. That doesn't mean I didn't bake any rhubarb cakes this year. Far from it! Rhubarb is always one of my favorite ingredients in baking and luckily our garden is full of it. So, I have already done some old favorites and tried some new ones this year. This one will definitely be repeated in the future, since it was really easy to make and tasted really good.

The base is a simple pound cake, which is topped half baked with a big meringue full of nuts and rhubarb. Instead of the hazelnuts I used you can also try almonds, or any other nuts. Since the topping is sweet it goes well with the tart rhubarb.

The recipe comes from a fairly new German magazine called "Sweet Dreams". If you have access to German magazines you should really check it out. Each issue concentrates on a few fruits in season and has really beautiful pictures. In the current issue a picture from my blog is published. They chose my Red Currant Meringue Cupcakes from last August.

Rhubarb Tartlets

What can be better than a buttery crust with lots of tart rhubarb? Well, what about topping it with crumbles and whipped cream. These are beautiful spring tartlets, but they will also be great for a summer picnic, if rhubarb is still available in your area. The rhubarb season in our garden is coming to an end, so these little treats were perfect.

If we get some more rain for the next few days we can probably extend the season a little longer. It was pretty dry lately. The strawberries are also ripe and just waiting to be paired up with the rhubarb. If you want something different from this usual pairing try rhubarb with apricot or with orange. Both go surprisingly well together.

Rhubarb-Vanilla Cakes in glass jars

Even though we have been doing a lot with our rhubarb since they started coming in our garden a few weeks ago, I just noticed I haven't posted anything on them this year yet.  So, here I am having some cake-in-a-jar for you. They are perfect for gifts this time of year, and great to bring to picnics.

Of course, this recipe can also be made with a muffin or loaf pan. I think that they taste fresh best, but it's nice to have something that you can save for later. Since the rhubarb keeps the cakes moist, I wouldn't keep them longer than 2-3 weeks at most.

Rhubarb Cheesecake

Rhubarb season in Germany is slowly coming to an end, so I had to take advantage of our garden supply and bake one last rhubarb cake for the season. This rhubarb cheesecake has a very nice tartness to it and a lovely buttery crust. If you can't find rhubarb anymore the cake works also very well with sour cherries.

Poppy Seed Cheesecake with Rhubarb Topping

First of all I have to apologize for the long absence from my blog. I was moving back to Germany, which took a lot of time and organizing. So not so much time for baking, photographing and blogging.

I was happy to see that there was a lot of rhubarb ready to be picked in the garden. Rhubarb is one of my favourite ingredient for fruity desserts. I added some strawberries to the topping, as those two are always a great combo.

The cheesecake filling is made made from a mix of quark (which is a German type of fresh cheese, usually used in German cheesecakes) and cream cheese. You can easily make quark yourself, when not available where you are. Meeta posted a great recipe a while back, and I used it many times when I lived in Canada.

Rhubarb Crumble Muffins

I am always happy to see rhubarbs start popping up in local markets. Rhubarb was always the first fruit (actually a vegetable) in our garden which we could harvest in spring. I am going to Germany in a few weeks and hope there will still be plenty, as I have seen so many good recipes lately.

These rhubarb-streusel-muffins are inspired by a recipe of one of my favorite German star chefs Johann Lafer, very easy and quick to make and a good mix of tartness from the rhubarb and the sweet crumb topping.

Rhubarb-Strawberry Crumble

Rhubarb and strawberry is a classic and always yummy combination. At home in Germany, we have a lot of rhubarb plants in our garden. When I was over there this spring I couldn't wait for them to be ready. I have just rediscovered my taste for rhubarb in recent years. I wasn't a big fan of it when I was younger, probably because of the tartness and also that your teeth feel funny after eating it. But nevertheless I love it even more now. In Germany the rhubarb season traditionally ends on June 24th, which is the same day as the white asparagus's. The reason is that the plants should be able to recuperate better until the next year.

The rhubarb season in Canada is longer and I made this crumble with some self-picked strawberries. The hazelnuts on top give a nice touch. I served it with some fresh whipped cream, but it will also be great with some vanilla ice-cream.