Rhubarb & Custard Cookies

I’ll be candid about candied rhubarb.

Oct 20, 2024

As with my previous rhubarb recipe, this one isn’t perfectly timed either. It’s the end of the rhubarb season here in the UK and the new season, next spring, feels quite a long way off. But if you happen to have a stash of candied rhubarb in your fridge or freezer, leftover from making rhubarb cheong then these cookies are an extremely delicious way of using it up.

If you’re unfamiliar with cheong, it’s a Korean method of making fruit syrup that doesn’t need to be heated and it works perfectly with rhubarb. All you do is sit equal weights of rhubarb and sugar in a jar together and the juices leech out from the chopped up stalks and create an unbelievably fresh-tasting syrup in just a few days, I usually leave the rhubarb macerating for a week. Once the syrup has been strained and bottled you’re left with a lot of deliciously sweetened but still crisp, fresh-tasting candied rhubarb. And it’s pretty miraculous stuff, particularly in these cookies because, unlike when heat is applied to fresh rhubarb, it doesn’t collapse at all, it keeps its structure and more importantly all its delicious flavour.

Please don’t be tempted to try these with fresh rhubarb, the fruit (yes, I know it’s a vegetable) simply turns into sour mushy patches, ruining an otherwise great cookie. Instead, if you can get your hands on some fresh rhubarb, make some cheong now and then next week, when you have some candied rhubarb, make the cookies. Or spend the next 3 months or so keenly awaiting the forced rhubarb season. It will be worth it, I promise.

INGREDIENTS:

100g soft salted butter (dairy or plant based)

60g golden syrup

40g white sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

125g plain flour (for gluten free use 135g of a self raising mix and omit the baking powder)

25g custard powder (use cornflour / corn starch if you can’t get custard powder)

1 tsp baking powder

150g candied rhubarb (with pink food colouring & citric acid if using)

HOW TO:

• Add the food colouring and a pinch of citric acid to sharpen the candied rhubarb (if using) and set aside.

• In a large mixing bowl combine the butter, sugar and syrup then mix in the custard powder.

• Add the flour and baking powder (if using wheat flour) and start to mix so you have a crumbly dough that hasn’t fully combined.

• Add the the rhubarb and mix in to evenly distribute it and bring everything together as a smooth dough.

• Chill the dough for 15 minutes in fridge. If you’re using gluten free flour, chill the dough for 30 minutes.

• Scoop approx 64g dough per cookie, roll in your hands to form a ball then slightly flatten each one onto a lined baking sheet. Leave space for the 8 cookies to spread.

• Bake in the middle of the oven at 175ºc fan for 11 to 12 minutes.

• Leave to cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before attempting to move them to a cooling rack. For gluten free, leave the cookies on the baking sheet to cool completely, they’re more fragile than their wheaty cousins and more likely to break when warm.

• Enjoy!

Tat x