Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

I decided to serve a raspberry swirl cheesecake as the dessert for a recent pop-up dinner.  I didn’t have an exact recipe at hand, but I have a basic cheesecake formula that I like to tweak for most cheesecake type preparations.  I figured that I could look around at what others were doing by way of incorporating the raspberry swirl (or marble) to get some ideas…and then adjust my recipe accordingly.

As is almost always the case when I search for “what others are doing,” I find one main thing that most people are doing…and then a few outliers that are quite different.  I should say up front that my experience is that there is no guarantee that the thing most people are doing is correct…or will even work at all.  It is a sad fact that in our food blogging world, anyone can post a recipe…and if something is beautiful in a picture or done by a widely read blogger…that many people just post it again—whether it works or not.  

My main question as I looked at recipes was about whether or not to cook the sweetened raspberry purée.  Most people cook the purée (one or two even used jam).  But I didn’t find anyone who explained why they did it one way or the other.  From my perspective, the main argument in favor of not cooking the raspberry purée is that it will remain thinner and won’t tend to want to sink in the batter.  Creating a marbled batter is not always a straightforward thing.  If one of the components is a lot thicker/heavier than the other, it will sink…and you will end up with two layers of batter rather than two batters that are marbled.  Most cheesecake batters are sort of thin and pourable, so a thinner purée makes more sense.

The argument against using fresh, uncooked purée is that the flavor isn’t very concentrated.  And since there is nothing in the purée to make it “set” during the cooking process, you can’t add a lot of it.  It literally needs to be a thin ribbon—a suggestion of more.  In many marbled cakes/cheesecakes/etc. the portion being marbled in is a quarter to a third of the total batter.  This would never work with a fruit purée (the resulting cheesecake would fall apart when cut). 

You could of course mix some of the cheesecake batter into the raspberry purée/sauce/jam—and then marble this fruit batter back into the main batter.  (This is how chocolate marbled cheesecakes are made.)  But since I wanted my raspberry swirl to have a deep, jewel-tone character, this didn’t appeal to me.

At the other end of the spectrum from fresh purée is jam.  Jam’s flavor is concentrated and would therefore give you a lot of flavor punch for the quantity…but jam is cooked until quite thick and heavy.  I was certain it would sink. I didn’t even consider using jam for this reason.

So…in the end…what “most people” were doing was what I went with:  a lightly cooked sweetened purée of raspberries. It gave me a more concentrated flavor than fresh…but was still thin enough that it didn’t sink.  If you cook it too long (making it too thick and heavy), you can always add water back in. 

As far as the actual process of adding the swirl, I added it in two layers.  The reason for this is that you can add more purée if you tuck some of it in the middle.  Part of what makes marbled things beautiful is the contrast on the surface (one of the reasons I baked my cake in a wide shallow pan is to give more surface area).  If you add all of the purée to the top (where it will stay since you’ve gone to lengths to keep it from sinking) you won’t have as much “swirl”—you’ll have “blobs” of raspberry instead. 

To add the raspberry purée in layers:  First, add a scant half of the cheesecake batter to the prepared pan over the crust and spread it out into an even layer. Drizzle about a third of the purée evenly over this first layer of batter (I use a squirt bottle—but a drizzling from a spoon will work just fine).  There is no need to swirl this part in…adding the rest of the batter and swirling the second addition of raspberry will be sufficient. 

The tricky part is adding the remaining batter.  You can’t just pour it on and spread it out.  You have to add it a spoonful at a time, holding your spatula/spoon/(whatever you are using to transfer the batter) just above the batter and moving it as you do (sort of like laying paint on a surface), so that each addition covers a wide section of the drizzle.  When you are done adding the batter, you shouldn’t need to spread it—other than a nudge here and there—since you were effectively spreading it as you laid it in the pan.  All the drizzle should be covered.

Then, use the squirt bottle or a small spoon to dollop the remaining raspberry puree evenly over the surface.  Use the tip of a table knife or small palette knife to marble in the puree.  The marble/swirl is best made with wide sweeping motions…zigzags and loops that sweep from one side of the pan to the other. You only need to do three or four passes one way…and then three or four the other…with a possible final swirl to “correct” any solid blobs of raspberry or spots of cheesecake that need a bit of raspberry swirled into them.

Finally, you will notice that there is white chocolate in the cheesecake batter…but not in the name.  I suppose you could call it “White Chocolate Cheesecake with a Raspberry Swirl” if you wanted to.  But to be honest, it doesn’t really taste like white chocolate.  I mostly add white chocolate because it adds an unidentifiable ”something-something”—in both the texture and the flavor.  You will notice when you add it, that it gives the batter more body and a slightly pearly sheen.  It also adds a bit of sweetness that compliments the raspberry particularly well.  I think you could probably leave it out…but I wouldn’t.

Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

Graham Cracker Crust:
5 oz. graham crackers, finely ground (to make a scant 1 1/2 cups crumbs)
3 T. granulated sugar
2 oz. (4 T.) unsalted butter, melted

Line a 9-inch square baking pan with 2 crisscrossed sheets of foil, leaving an overhang. Butter or spray the pan. Combine the crust ingredients until homogenous and press into the pan in a compact even layer. Bake in a pre-heated 350° oven until just beginning to brown—10 minutes. Cool.

Filling:
125 g. white chocolate, chopped
3 8-oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature
165 g. sugar (3/4 c. plus 1 T.)
2 T. all-purpose flour, sifted (15 g.)
1/8 t. salt
1/2 c. sour cream (121g.)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 t. vanilla
95 g. raspberry sauce (about 1/3 c.)

Set a large pot of water over high heat. When it is steaming, reduce the heat to very low and place the white chocolate in a bowl that is wider than the pot and place the bowl over the steaming water. Let the chocolate melt. Remove the bowl from the pot and set aside in a warm spot while you make the batter. Bring the pot of water to a boil and keep hot.

Briefly beat cream cheese to break up. Beat in the sugar until smooth; scrape the sides. Beat in the flour & salt; scrape the sides. Add the sour cream and beat in. Scrape the sides. Beat in the eggs and vanilla in two or three additions, just until smooth and fully incorporated. Add a quarter to a third of the batter to the melted chocolate and quickly stir in until smooth. Add this tempered white chocolate batter to the main batter and mix until thoroughly combined.

Scrape a scant half of the batter (a little over 500 grams) into the prepared pan. Using a squirt bottle with a medium tip, drizzle a couple of tablespoons (30 g) of the raspberry sauce over the batter. Carefully spoon the remaining batter into the pan…covering the drizzle completely. Using the squirt bottle, squeeze small dollops of the remaining 65 g of sauce evenly over the surface (6 by 6 works well). Use a table or small palette knife to swirl through.

Place the pan on a half-sheet pan and place on the oven rack in a pre-heated 325° oven. Pour in the reserved hot water to come up at least half as high as the batter in the pan. Bake until just set—about 50 to 55 minutes.  Lift the foil that is wrapped over the edges of the pan so that it is free to move as the cake shrinks while cooling. 

Cool the cake to room temperature (about 2 hours). Chill, uncovered, until cold (at least 2 hours, but cheesecake may be baked a day or two ahead…or even frozen).

To portion, lift the cold cake out of the pan using the overhang of foil. Cut the cake using a sharp, thin knife dipped in hot water (and wiped dry) in between cuts. First, trim the edges. Then cut into three strips. Cut each strip evenly into 3, 4 or 5 pieces depending on whether you want 9, 12 or 15 portions. You may also cut 18 buffet-sized portions by cutting 9 squares and then cutting each square in half on the diagonal.

If you like, drizzle some of the sauce on each plate and top each portion with a rosette of whipped cream and some fresh raspberries.

Raspberry Sauce

6 oz. raspberries, fresh or frozen
3 T. sugar
1/2 t. lemon juice

Purée and strain the raspberries. You should have a half to two-thirds cup of purée. Add the sugar and lemon juice and bring to a simmer in a small saucepan. Simmer for a few minutes until slightly thickened and darkened in color. Cool. Makes a scant half cup or 125g. sauce. If you have much less than this, simply add a little water to thin the purée back out.

Printable Version

Raspberry & Almond Tea Cake

Way back in June one of my dinner clients gave me some beautiful raspberries from their garden.  They were just perfect for eating with my yogurt for breakfast.  But I also couldn’t resist the idea of adding them to a cake to enjoy with that bowl of breakfast fruit and yogurt.  So I made a simple raspberry almond streusel cake (a slightly tweaked version of my yogurt coffee cake).  The cake was delicious…made even better by the spectacular raspberries.  But as I was enjoying it I got to thinking about how much I really like the combination of raspberries and almond…and how I would really like to have even more almond flavor in my cake.  I decided I needed to make more cake.

A second reason I wanted to make another cake was that the streusel cake I had made didn’t really have enough structure to stand up to the damp addition of berries in the long term.  It was fine the day I made it…but the streusel (and even the cake) got a bit soggy as it aged.  This would not have been a big deal if I had been making it and serving it all right away to a crowd (for a brunch, for example).  But since I keep my cakes on hand for a while…and always freeze most of the slices…this wasn’t really ideal.

I thought that the best way to strengthen the structure might be to add some more egg.  I tend to make cakes that have what some bakers might consider an insufficient quantity of egg.  Classic pound cake is the poster child for “balanced formula” cakes—balanced in that the ingredients that give strength/structure (eggs and flour) are balanced by ingredients that add tenderness (sugar and fat).  I find the classic formula for pound cake to be a bit rubbery—even tough—because of the volume of egg.  (Some recipes add more sugar…or butter…or replace some of the egg with another liquid to work around the rubbery/toughness factor).

Even considering my usual preference for softer textured cakes, I had a couple of reasons to think more egg was the direction I needed to go with my raspberry cake.  First, when I began thinking I wanted to increase the almond flavor in my cake, Danish almond cake (probably my all time favorite cake) immediately came to mind.  Danish almond cake has an intense almond flavor because it is made with almond paste.  It also has a high proportion of eggs. This higher volume of eggs doesn’t make the cake tough because the eggs are well balanced by the tenderizing effects of the almonds and sugar. 

Then, in my quest to find ways to incorporate raspberries in my cake, I ran across some delicious looking raspberry cupcakes in Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh. I noticed that they had used a higher proportion of eggs in their recipe. Helen Goh appears to be a precise baker (thoroughly testing all of her recipes)…I thought I wouldn’t go wrong by following her lead.  The cake I ended up making was essentially a cross between the cupcake recipe and the Danish almond cake recipe. 

When I finally got around to making my second version of the raspberry and almond cake, I decided that I was tired of always make streusel cakes for my breakfast cakes.  There is of course nothing wrong with streusel.  (I will continue to enjoy streusel cakes!)  But somehow for this particular cake a topping of toasted almonds—glued in place with a buttery, powdered sugar drizzle—seemed particularly appealing.  If you don’t want to go to the trouble of adding icing and almonds, I discovered the cake is also very nice—and kind of elegant—with a simple dusting of powdered sugar.

I love this simple little cake.  It has enough structure to slice beautifully and stand up to the moisture in the raspberries…yet it is still very tender and moist.  Best of all, it has a delightful almond flavor—a perfect backdrop for the tart raspberries.  If you like raspberries in combination with almonds, I think you will find it to be delicious—and just the thing…whether you like to enjoy your cake for breakfast...or a little later in the day.  

Raspberry & Almond Tea Cake

150 g. (1 1/3 c.) all-purpose flour
1/4 t. fine salt
1 t. baking powder
1/8 t. baking soda
175 g. (1 c. less 2 T.) granulated sugar
85 g./3 oz. almond paste, (not marzipan)
5 oz./10 T. unsalted butter, divided—5 T. at room temperature and 5 T. kept cold and cut into 5 chunks
1/2 t. almond extract
3 large eggs (150 g.), at room temperature
80 g./1/3 c. plain yogurt
7 to 8 oz. fresh raspberries, divided
Powdered sugar for dusting
1 recipe powdered sugar glaze (optional)
2/3 c. sliced almonds, lightly toasted (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Butter a 9- by 2-inch round cake pan.  Line the pan with a round of parchment, butter the parchment.  Flour the pan, knocking out the excess flour. 

Place the first four ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to aerate and combine.  Set aside. 

Place the sugar and almond paste in the bowl of a stand mixer and using the paddle attachment, mix on medium low to begin breaking up the almond paste.  Add the cold butter and increase the speed to medium high (you may need to put some plastic wrap around the mixer to prevent the almond paste, sugar and butter from being flung out of the bowl).  Beat until the mixture is smooth.  When no lumps of almond paste or butter remain, increase the speed to high and add the soft butter.  Cream until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the bowl add the almond extract and mix in.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating briefly on medium-high speed after each addition to return the batter to fluffiness and scraping down the sides before each next addition.  Fold in half of the dry ingredients, followed by the yogurt.  Add the remaining dry ingredients followed by 4 to 5 oz. of the raspberries on top of the dry.  

By hand fold in this remaining flour with the berries.  It is not necessary to be too gentle….the cake is actually kind of nice if some of the berries break up.  Don’t overdo it though…you don’t want pink batter.  

Turn the batter into the prepared pan.  Smooth the surface and scatter 3 oz. of berries evenly over the top.  

Transfer the cake to the oven and bake for about 40 minutes.  The cake is done when it is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.  Run a small palate knife around the edge and invert the cake onto a rack or plate.  Place a rack on the bottom and reinvert so that the cake cools right side up.  Cool completely. 

The cake may be served simply—dusted with powdered sugar and accompanied by whipped cream.  Or, serve as a brunch/breakfast cake by drizzling with a powdered sugar glaze and sprinkling with toasted almonds (see below).  Serves 10. 

Powdered sugar glaze:  In a small heat-proof/microwave safe bowl combine 1 c. (120 g.) powdered sugar with 2 T. melted butter, 1 1/2 T. heavy cream, 1/2 t. vanilla extract and 1/2 t. almond extract.   Stir with a rubber spatula until smooth.  This frosting “sets” as the melted butter cools.  If it is too stiff for drizzling right after mixing (from cold cream straight out of the fridge…or a chilly room…for example), gently warm until the consistency is right.  If you overdo it, just let it sit for a few minutes and it will start to thicken/firm up again. 

To decorate the cake, generously drizzle some of the glaze over the surface of the cake.  Sprinkle the toasted almonds over to cover (the glaze will act as a tasty kind of glue).  If you like, drizzle more glaze over the almonds in a uniform, back and forth (across the cake) motion.  (Or, dredge the almonds with powdered sugar.)  If you want to insure perfectly clean cuts, portion the cake and then apply the glaze and almonds as for the whole cake (the sliced almonds might cause the tender and soft cake to tear when you cut it).

Printable Version

A Special Springtime Dessert…Danish Almond Cake with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream and Mixed Berry Compote

If someone were to take a look at my last few posts, they might think this was a blog devoted just to desserts.  In the last five posts I have shared a recipe for chocolate mousse, two cookie recipes and a cake.  And today I’m posting another cake.  I promise to get back into savory mode as we head into spring…but I just couldn’t resist sharing the simple, delicious and oh-so-perfect-for-spring cake that I served to my family for Easter this year.

I have actually shared the recipe for this cake before (in the Holiday Almond Cake Squares that I posted several Christmases ago).  But I wanted to share it again to demonstrate how versatile it can be….and also to emphasize how much I love it.  I don’t think it is a secret that I really like cake… all kinds of cake.  I eat cake almost every day…and I have shared many different kinds of recipes for cake over the years.  But when it comes to cakes for dessert, this almond cake is the cake.  If I could only have one cake to make for birthdays and special occasions for the rest of my life, this is the cake I would choose.  It is perfect in every way.  It bakes into beautiful, level, fine-grained layers that slice cleanly and neatly.  It can be baked in just about any kind of shape (square and round…small and large…).  It can be eaten plainly—with nothing more than a dusting of powdered sugar…or a scattering of toasted almonds.  It is wonderful accompanied by a little fruit…fresh, poached or roasted.   And it can be covered with almost any favorite buttercream or glaze.  And it is of course delicious!  If you love almond flavor, this will probably become your favorite cake too.

                                                                                                                          

I have been making this cake for more than twenty years.  And up until about four years ago my love for this cake was marred (only slightly, I admit) by the persnickety mixing method.  As originally published in Madeleine Kamman’s The New Making of a Cook, the recipe directed you to finely grate the almond paste before creaming it with the butter and sugar.  If you have every worked with almond paste, grating small amounts is a wonderful trick for getting this moderately stiff and sticky substance evenly distributed throughout a batter…or over a pastry or bar cookie.  But grating ten and half ounces of it is a sticky mess.  The fact that I continued to make this cake despite how I felt about grating the almond paste says a lot about how much I love it.  But just in case it was out there, I was always on the lookout for another way to blend the almond paste perfectly and smoothly into the batter.

Then, a few years ago I ran across Thomas Keller’s version of this cake in his book Bouchon.   (There are many, many versions of this cake…it is so lovely that most pastry chefs have it in their repertoire in some form.)  His method for incorporating the almond paste is fantastic.  Instead of softening the butter before creaming it with the almond paste and sugar, the butter is added while it is still cold.  Because the butter is still hard when the creaming process begins, it smoothly absorbs the almond paste bit by bit.  By the time the action of the paddle has softened the butter, it has absorbed all of the almond paste and sugar into a stiff, thick, uniform mass.  

Continued creaming warms and softens the butter while simultaneously incorporating air and eventually produces a perfectly light and fluffy mass of creamed butter, sugar and almond paste.




Brilliant.  And easy. 

Because the proportions of the recipe I use differ slightly from Keller’s recipe, I have adapted his method to work with my recipe.  I leave two thirds of the butter cold and bring the other third to room temperature.  After creaming the cold butter with the almond paste and sugar until everything is completely smooth, I beat in the remaining softened butter and continue to cream until the whole mass is light and fluffy.  Basically Keller’s method seems to work well if the weight of the cold butter is about half the weight of the almond paste.  I have gotten lumps of almond paste that didn’t want to smooth out when I have tried to use all cold butter in my version of the recipe. 

For Easter this year I frosted the cake with a fresh strawberry buttercream.  The recipe is the one my friend Chef Nancy uses in her bake shop and it is basically a Swiss Meringue style buttercream with puréed strawberries beaten into it.  It is light, fresh and delicious—and sets the almond cake off beautifully.

If you have never made Swiss Meringue buttercream, it is a fairly straightforward operation.  Classic recipes are based on a formula where egg whites, along with about twice their weight in sugar are placed in a mixing bowl and heated over a bath of simmering water until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is hot to the touch.  The temperature of the mixture should be in the 150°F to 160°F range. Once you have made it a few times, you will not need a thermometer—you will know by touch if it is ready.  While this mixture is heating, it must be stirred constantly.  You may use a rubber spatula for this, but I find it easiest just to grab the whisk attachment of my mixer at the top and use this to keep the mixture moving over the heat. 

When the mixture is hot, attach the bowl to the mixer and whisk at high speed until it has cooled to room temperature.  Beat in room temperature butter (in an amount roughly equal to the weight of the sugar and whites combined).  At this point flavorings (extracts, fruit purees, etc) are added.  If the mixture looks curdled, 




or is too stiff, warm it briefly (you don’t want to melt the butter—just get the bowl warm to the touch) over the simmering water you used to warm the egg whites and then return it to the mixer and beat with the paddle attachment until smooth. 

You will find all kinds of recipes for Swiss Meringue buttercream—all with slight variations in quantities of whites, sugar and butter.  As long as the ratios of the ingredients are in the ball park of what I have described, the recipe should work just fine.  If you already have a favorite recipe, by all means use it as the base for your strawberry buttercream.

I garnished my Easter cake with my favorite fresh berry compote.  I make this particular compote all the time during the spring and early summer months.  It is wonderful with ice cream, angel food or pound cake, lemon tart…fritters, pancakes and waffles…just about anything that would be set off to advantage by a few berries and a little sauce. Because none of the components are cooked, the compote is bright and fresh—perfect for spring and summer.

Easter is of course over for the year, but there are many spring and early summer celebrations yet to come—graduations, bridal showers, Mother’s day…  This cake would be just the thing for any one of them.  But even if you don’t make the compote….or the buttercream…I hope today’s post inspires you to try this amazing cake.  Once you make it, I think you will find yourself wanting to make it often…for any (and possibly every) occasion.

Danish Almond Cake

200 g. (1 c.) granulated sugar

300 g./10 1/2 oz. almond paste, (not marzipan)

1/2 lb. unsalted butter, divided—1/3 at room temperature and 2/3 kept cold and cut into 6 to 8 chunks

1 t. vanilla

5 large eggs (250 g.)

100 g. (1 c.) sifted cake flour

1/4 t. fine salt

1/2 t. baking powder

Preheat the oven to 325°.  Butter a 10- by 2-inch round cake pan.  Line the pan with a round of parchment, butter the parchment.  Flour the pan, knocking out the excess flour. 

Place the sugar and almond paste in the bowl of a stand mixer and using the paddle attachment, mix on medium low to begin breaking up the almond paste.  Add the cold butter and increase the speed to medium high (you may need to put some plastic wrap around the mixer to prevent the almond paste, sugar and butter from being flung out of the bowl).  Beat until the mixture is smooth.  When no lumps of almond paste or butter remain, increase the speed to high and add the soft butter.  Cream until light and fluffy—about 5 minutes.  Scrape down the bowl add the vanilla and mix in.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating briefly on medium-high speed after each addition to return the batter to fluffiness and scraping down the sides before each next addition.  

Finally, sift the dry ingredients directly over the batter and fold in.  Turn into the prepared pan

and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.  The cake is done when it is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Unmold immediately onto a plate.  Invert onto a rack to let the cake cool right side up.  Cool completely. 

The cake may be frosted or simply dusted with powdered sugar and served plain or with whipped cream and berries.  Serves 12 to 16. 

(Recipe adapted from The New Making of a Cook by Madeleine Kamman)

Printable Version 

Fresh Strawberry Buttercream

4 egg whites (120 g.)

1 1/4 c. sugar (250 g.)

3/4 lb. unsalted butter, at room temperature

8 oz. fresh strawberry purée (see note)

Place the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and place over a pan of simmering water.  Stir constantly—with a whisk or rubber spatula—until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is hot to the touch.  An instant read thermometer will read between 150°F and 160°F.

Using the whisk attachment, whip the mixture on high speed until the mixture has formed a thick, glossy, billowy meringue.  Continue beating until the bowl no longer feels warm to the touch.  Reduce the speed to medium-high and add the butter two or three tablespoons at a time, beating until it is completely absorbed.  Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides.  Whisk in the strawberry purée.  If the mixture appears curdled, place the bowl back over the pan of simmering water just until the bowl is warm.  You don’t want the butter to melt you just want the bowl to be warm.  Return the bowl to the mixer and beat until the mixture no longer appears separated.  Switch to the paddle attachment and continue to beat on medium or medium low speed until the mixture is very silky and smooth and has lightened to a lovely pale pink color. 

Makes about 5 cups of buttercream.  (You will only need about half of this for the Almond Cake.)  The buttercream may be refrigerated for a week or frozen for six months.  Allow the buttercream to come to room temperature before rebeating to restore its silken texture. 

Note:  To make strawberry purée, wash and hull 9 oz. of strawberries.  Purée the hulled strawberries in the food processor until completely smooth.  If made ahead, bring to room temperature before adding to the buttercream. 

Printable Version

  

Fresh Berry Compote

1 6 oz. box raspberries (or use an equal weight of frozen—thaw before using)

3 T. sugar

2 to 3 t. lemon juice—or to taste

1 lb. strawberries, washed, dried, hulled and cut into wedges or sliced

1 to 2 T. sugar

1 1/2 c. mixed berries—raspberries, blueberries and/or blackberries

Make a raspberry sauce:  Purée the raspberries and pass through a fine-meshed strainer, pressing hard with a ladle or spatula in order to extract all of the purée.  Stir in the sugar.  Add lemon juice to taste.

About an hour or two before you plan to serve the compote, place the strawberries in a bowl and sugar lightly and toss to combine.  When you are ready to serve the compote, add the other berries to the strawberries along with the raspberry sauce, folding carefully to distribute the berries and until all of the berries are coasted with the sauce.   

Printable Version 

Raspberry-Rhubarb Streusel Pie...a lesson in simplicity

As much as I promote the idea of simplicity in the foods that I make (for my classes, myself and my clients), every now and then I find that I have to learn this lesson all over again.  My goal is always to make foods that taste like themselves...to through the preparation process enhance the innate charms of the featured ingredients...not cover them up.  Most of the time, a lot of different additions and seasonings aren't necessary to accomplish this.  It is true that a multitude of ingredients—when combined with knowledge—can produce flavors of mysterious and delicious subtlety...but more often than not, extreme complexity masks flavor.

A few years ago I posted a rhubarb pie with an interesting streusel featuring the spices typically found in chai spice.  In this particular case, complexity was my friend and the pie was delicious.  The walnuts and spices combined with the rhubarb produced a harmonious and memorable whole.  I thought adding some raspberries to the mix would only make it better.  I was wrong.  The new pie tasted of nothing.  It was sort of sweet...sort of tart...sort of spicy...  But there was just too much going on...too much vying for dominance.    

As is often the case when something like this happens, I made the mistake of thinking I needed to add something to wake up the flavor.  Since most fruit pies benefit (particularly berry pies) from a little lemon, I added that.  But because of the other strong flavors it still didn't have the clean fruit flavor that is the hallmark of a fine fruit pie. 

I then got rid of all the spices but one (cardamom—knowing I liked this with raspberry) and changed the slightly bitter walnuts for sweeter almonds (a friend to both raspberry and cardamom).  I also increased the lemon juice in the filling.  At this point, the filling was much better (sweet-tart and fruity)...but the streusel was still out of place...calling attention to itself rather than supporting the delicious raspberry and rhubarb filling.

It was then that I realized that I needed to back up.  So I made a simple oatmeal and brown sugar streusel (with no spices)...and added lemon zest and a little vanilla in the filling.  Finally, my pie tasted like what it was...delicious fruit in a tender crust with a sweet and crunchy topping.    

I confess that the inclusion of lemon zest and vanilla bean might seem to some like a complicated addition...but to me they are not.  They fall solidly into the tried and true camp.  Lemon zest is a standard addition to pies that include lemon juice....it adds an aromatic quality to what is otherwise just the acidity of the lemon.  As for the vanilla bean, I was considering adding some vanilla extract when I ran across another raspberry and rhubarb pie that included vanilla bean instead.  Since my very favorite jam—damson plum—goes from delicious to spectacular when made with a vanilla bean, I thought including it in a pie of similarly tart ingredients was a good idea.  And I do think it's delicious...but you should feel free to leave it (and the zest) out, if you prefer.  Either way, this really is just a simple, old-fashioned fruit pie.  The combination of the raspberries and the rhubarb provides all the complexity one might need

Raspberry-Rhubarb Streusel Pie

2/3 c. all-purpose flour (80 g.)
2/3 c. oats—quick or old-fashioned (62 g.)
1/3 c. granulated sugar (66 g.)
1/3 c. packed light brown sugar (66 g.)
1/4 t. salt
1/3 c. unsalted butter, melted (75 g.)

1 c. sugar (200 g.)
Zest of 1/2 of a lemon
1 vanilla bean
pinch of salt
3 T. cornstarch (27 g.)
4 c. diced rhubarb (1 lbs. trimmed weight)
2 c. fresh raspberries (8 to 9 oz.)
Juice of half of a lemon (2 T.) 

1 recipe Pâte Brisée, rolled out for a 9-inch single crust pie and chilled

Combine the dry ingredients for the streusel in a medium bowl. Add the butter and stir with a fork or rubber spatula until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs; chill.

Preheat the oven to 425°. Split the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds into the sugar in a small bowl.  (Reserve the pod for another use, if you like.)  Add the lemon zest.  Rub the vanilla and lemon zest into the sugar with your fingers.  Add the salt and cornstarch and stir to distribute.  Place the rhubarb and lemon juice in a large bowl.  Add the dry ingredients and stir until moistened.  Add the raspberries and gently fold in. Turn the fruit into the chilled crust, scraping the bowl well. Spread the streusel evenly over the fruit. 

Transfer the pie to the lowest rack of the oven. Bake the pie at 425° for 20 minutes. Cover the edges with a foil ring and turn the temperature down to 375° and bake for 20 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 325° and bake until the streusel is golden brown, the juices are bubbling thickly in the center of the pie and the bottom crust is browned—another 25-35 minutes. If the juices ever threaten to over-flow, slide a baking sheet under the baking pie.  Cool the pie to room temperature before cutting (this allows the juices to “firm up”).  If desired, re-warm the pie briefly just before cutting. Serve with vanilla ice cream or sweetened whipped cream.

Notes:

• If fresh rhubarb is unavailable, you may use frozen. Spread on a rack set over a baking sheet and let sit at room temperature until just beginning to thaw (it should feel a bit soft)—about 30 to 40 minutes. If any of the chunks of rhubarb are very large, cut them down to an appropriate size. Mix the filling and fill the crust as for fresh. Leave the oven temperature at 425° for 25 minutes. You will have to bake the pie longer at 325° longer before you see bubbles at the center of the pie...perhaps 10 to 15 minutes longer.
• If you prefer your rhubarb to be more heavily sweetened, you may add another 2 T. of sugar to the filling. Don't reduce the lemon juice, the pie will lose its bright flavor.
• You may leave the vanilla bean out...or substitute a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Add with the lemon juice.

  

Pâte Brisée

(Basic Pie Dough)

1 1/3 c. all-purpose flour (150g)
1/2 t. salt
6 T. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces (85 g.)
2 T. vegetable shortening (28 g.)
3 to 4 T. ice water

Combine the flour and the salt in a medium-sized bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like cornmeal and peas.  Add the shortening and quickly rub in.  Drizzle 3 T. ice water over the flour/butter mixture. Using your hands, fluff the mixture until it begins to clump, adding more water if necessary. If, when you squeeze some of the mixture it holds together, the dough is finished. Turn the dough out onto a counter and form into a mound. Using the heel of your hand, gradually push all of the dough away from you in short forward strokes, flattening out the lumps. Continue until all of the dough is flat. Using a bench scraper, scrape the dough off the counter, forming it into a single clump as you do. Wrap in plastic wrap and press into a thick disk. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

To roll out, let the dough warm up for a moment or two. Butter and flour a 9-inch pie plate and set it aside. Flour the work surface and the rolling pin. Begin rolling from the center of the dough outward. After each stroke, rotate the dough a quarter turn—always making sure that there is sufficient flour to keep the dough from sticking. Keep rolling and turning until you have a round of dough that is about 1/8 to 1/6 –inch in thickness. Using a lid or an upside-down bowl, trim the dough to form a 13-inch circle. Brush off the excess flour and fold the dough circle in half. Slide the outspread fingers of both hands under the dough and gently lift it and transfer it to the prepared pie plate. Unfold the dough and ease it into the pan being careful not to stretch it. Fold the extra dough under along the rim of the pan so that it is double in thickness. Crimp the edge. Chill the pie shell for at least 1/2 hour.

Note: You may replace the vegetable shortening with butter for an all butter crust.

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