Baked Sticky Rhubarb Pudding Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to cook rhubarb without it going mushy? ›

Method. Put the rhubarb into a saucepan with the orange zest, juice, sugar and 2 tbsp water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 8 mins until the rhubarb is cooked but still holds its shape.

To prepare: Wash the stems and cut off the leaves and the ends. Cut into 2cm lengths, removing any strings if necessary. Stew or poach in some water and a little sugar. When making a crumble or a pie, the rhubarb does not need to be cooked first.

As rhubarb cooks it releases a lot of moisture, so there's rarely any need to add much extra liquid.

To keep it sugar free you could use a little stevia, for a low fructose option you could use either rice syrup or coconut nectar, or if you're a honey fan, a little raw honey would combine beautifully with the ginger and vanilla.

Mixing your fresh fruit with sugar and letting it sit is called maceration, and it helps draw excess liquid out of your rhubarb before it cooks out and leaves your pie soggy.

Wash rhubarb with cool tap water, but do not soak.

Rhubarb grows best in an open, sunny site with fertile, moist but free-draining soil. It will also cope in light shade. Avoid ground that gets waterlogged, as plants are liable to rot. If your soil is heavy, plant in raised beds or large containers.

Rhubarb is a type of laxative called a stimulant laxative. Stimulant laxatives can cause diarrhea and decrease potassium levels. Some medications for inflammation, called corticosteroids, can also decrease potassium levels. Taking these products together might cause potassium levels to drop too low.

Rhubarb is an excellent source of fiber, which helps to lower cholesterol. Studies show that rhubarb helps lower your bad cholesterol levels as well as your total cholesterol. Lower cholesterol levels reduce your risk for heart disease and heart attack.

How much baking soda do I put in rhubarb? ›

Neutralizing Rhubarb's Acidity

Once the rhubarb has given up its juices, pull it from the oven and stir in a quarter teaspoon of baking soda using a heat-resistant spatula.

Its stalks are deeper red and tinged with green, while its leaves are bright green. It has a more intense flavour and robust texture than the forced variety. Although it can be eaten raw, rhubarb tends to be too tart this way, and it's usually best when cooked with plenty of sugar.

When do you have to worry about rhubarb? Rhubarb in your garden that has frozen to the point where the stalks become damaged or mushy should be discarded. Check the leaves, too. If the stalks are firm and upright and the leaves have little damage, the rhubarb is OK.

It also can rely on some of nature's best sweeteners—honey and orange juice—to bring it to its sweetest, most flavorful heights.

Go for whatever is in season to help keep costs down, too. Apples, clementines, bananas and rhubarb are good sources of vitamin C, which is good for boosting your immune system and wound healing. Dried raisins are a source of iron, which is needed to make the oxygen carrying part of your blood.

Macerate Your Rhubarb With Sugar To Draw Out Excess Liquid

Mixing fruit with sugar draws out moisture through the process of osmosis, which happens when water naturally balances out by migrating from the cells in your fruit to the dissolved sugar molecules on the surface, the same way it does with salt.

Rhubarb plants can be prone to honey fungus, crown rot and viruses. Any of these diseases will weaken the plant and it is best to dig up affected plants and start again on a new site. Crown rot is the most common. It's a fungal infection at the base of the stalks, and causes the crowns to turn brown and soft.

Preparation of fresh rhubarb

If you buy it during the peak season (April to June), peeling isn't necessary. But after peak season, the stalks can be tough, and peeling with a small and sharp knife might be necessary to help make it more palatable (via BBC Good Food).

Limp rhubarb can be perked up by standing the stems upright in chilled water for about an hour. A word of warning: rhubarb leaves are poisonous due to their relatively high oxalic acid content and must be discarded. The shredded leaves, mixed with water, were once used as an insecticide to spray over plants and bushes.