Rhubarb and Custard - An Old Perennial

I am writing this recipe up on a day which truly feels like a first day of summer, and I am about to tell you about a warm pudding.  This is truly awful! Maybe I should be hoping that it is raining and cold where you are, but I wouldn't wish that on anyone - well unless it made you eat this pudding of course!

Usually, I make crumble when I have rhubarb.  It's a foolproof combination whose tastes and texture is heavenly.  However, for a change last night I made a cobbler.  Now, Mr B says this is on a par with crumble, which is a big thing for him to say!  I think this pud could feature quite heavily in my repertoire now :-)

I was always under the impression that a cobbler was like-a-crumble-but-not.  It turns out it is nothing like this, and is much more cakey.  Served with cream or custard this is an absolute winner.

Rhubarb Cobbler (serves 4)

For the base

600g rhubarb

2 tbsp fresh orange juce

1 tbsp cornflour

1/2 inch fresh ginger finely chopped

1 tbsp sugar

For the topping

100g plain flour

45g butter

1 tsp baking powder

30g caster sugar

100ml milk

2 tbsp double cream

1 tbsp demerara sugar

1) Preheat the oven to 170C

2) Cut the rhubarb into 1 inch pieces, and in a large bowl mix with the other ingredients.  The place into a large, relatively shallow baking dish.  (I used one about 10cm deep) and put to one side.

3) Rub the flour, baking powder and butter together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

4) Mix in the sugar and then the milk until you have a sticky and slightly runny dough.  It should resemble a stiff-ish cake mix.

5) Dollop the toppng on top of the rhubarb.  It doesn't need to be neat - in fact it should have patches where the fruit still shows through.

6) Mix the cream and demerara together in small jug and then pour over the cobbler. 

7) Cook at 170C for 25-30 mins.  I would recommend putting a baking sheet underneath the dish.   I didn't do this and spent this morning cleaning spilt rhubarb from the inside of my oven when it had bubbled over. Annoying.

Next time, I hope to be back with something which rather suits the weather better!