Strawberries and Rhubarb are a match made in Heaven!

We hosted a dinner party this weekend and I wanted to make a dessert that highlighted the season’s best fruits. I chose Strawberries and Rhubarb, definitely a match made in heaven! One of my go-to chefs for desserts is Ina Garten. She has never disappointed me with any of her dessert recipes, so I selected her Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp. She combines the fruit with orange juice and zest to give it a nice citrus twist. The crisp part is made with oatmeal, sugars, flour and butter which combines into a nice crunchy topping for the fruit base. Her suggestion is to serve it with vanilla ice cream, but wanting to venture out a little more, I decided to make the Homemade Cinnamon Caramel Ice Cream from Kristine Macabare’s Blog – Katharses.org. 

The process began a couple days early making the ice cream as I knew it would hold well in the freezer until my party. I always try to portion out the work so that I am not overwhelmed at the last minute. Making the custard was the first step. Pretty standard and easy as I have made homemade ice cream many times. The new addition was in toasting the cinnamon lightly in a skillet first. I often toast spices to bring out their full flavor, but had never done it with ground cinnamon before. During the cooking stage, I reminded myself not to over cook the custard so that it does not start to curdle. It only needs to coat the back of a spoon, becoming only slightly thick. Then off to the refrigerator to cool off while I started the caramel sauce.

I continued on with a journey through the do’s and don’ts about making a caramel sauce. I had recently made a delicious salted caramel sauce for my Caramelized Apple Cake, but the process on Kristine’s blog was a different one. Always interested in expanding my knowledge in everything food, I thought I should give it a try. The process I made in the past was considered the “wet method“. Kristine’s recipe was for the “dry method“, meaning that you melt the sugar without adding any liquid. Everything seemed to go well throughout the stages, however I ended up with a gritty sauce at the end. After reading many reviews and sites about making caramel sauce, I realized that there are many opinions on how the process should be done. Stir – don’t stir, cook until dark amber – stop before it gets dark, brush the sides of the pan with water-  don’t touch the sides, etc. You get the picture! I even tried to reheat the sauce adding more liquid hoping that I could rescue my caramel sauce, but in the end, I decided to dump it and try again. This time though, I was going to try a third method! The Pioneer Woman has a recipe for “Easy Caramel Sauce“ and I thought it was worth a try. This one was completely different than the other two variations as you add all of the ingredients at once in a pan, cook for 5-7 minutes and you’re done!  That’s it!! The recipe calls for brown sugar instead of white as the main difference. It worked! I did notice after refrigerating the sauce, it also became a little gritty tasting, however after a short reheat, it was back to a smooth rich caramel sauce. So now I have a whole arsenal of methods on how to make caramel. Some day when I’m feeling adventurous, I might try the dry method again to see if I can perfect it.

I ended up with a scrumptious dessert served warm out of the oven with my creamy homemade ice cream slowly melting on the crunchy topping of the Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp. Not a morsel left on any plate, even after several courses of appetizers, salad and wood-fired pizzas. I would call that success!

(Look for individual recipes on my recipe index under desserts & sauces)