Placek with Rhubarb & Meringue

This cake was inspired by my placek(flat cake) with sour cherries and meringue. 

There are three parts to this cake:

• Short pastry base – baked and cooled.
• Rhubarb filling – cooked and left to go cold.
• Meringue topping.

Three stages all take a bit of time but well worth the effort. It is delicious with a lovely balance of  sweetness against the tart rhubarb.

Short pastry base

The base of is made with a smaller amount of the recipe for  Ciasto kruche 1 – using raw egg yolks found in a previous post  – Pastry – ciasto kruche & półkruche. 

I could see out of my kitchen window that the rhubarb was beginning to grow.  As I still had one batch left frozen from last summer I to decided to use that up before the new crop and in time for you to try it.

Ingredients – base

• 200g plain flour
• 100g butter – chilled
• 70g icing sugar
• 2 egg yokes
• pinch of salt

Method – base

• Add a pinch of salt to the flour.
• Use a knife to cut the chilled butter into small pieces into the flour and then use your fingers to make the mixture like breadcrumbs.
• Add the icing sugar and mix this together.
• Add the yolks and gently mix this in, then and bring it all together into a dough – try and handle the pastry as little as possible.
• Form the dough into a rough rectangle.
• Wrap the dough in greaseproof paper and chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to GM 6 – 200°C.
• Grease and line a 23 x 26 cm baking tin.
• Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough a little
• Press the dough into the tin – filling it up all the sides.
• Prick the surface with a fork.
• Bake for 20 – 25 minutes till golden.
• Leave to cool.

Ingredients – Rhubarb filling

• 400g (approx) of rhubarb
• 150g of granulated sugar (more may be needed)
• 25g of butter
• 3 egg yolks
• 2-3 tablespoons of potato or corn flour

Method – rhubarb filling

• This needs to be made ahead of time as it must be cold.
• Pre-heat the oven to GM2
• Chop the rhubarb into small pieces and place in a baking dish
• Add sugar.
• Bake in the oven for around 1 hour – till soft.
• Check for sweetness and add more sugar if necessary – but not too sweet.
• Leave to cool a little.
• *
• I used cooked rhubarb that I had frozen from last year. 
• *
• Wizz the rhubarb up with a blender or chopper to get a purée.
• Place this in a saucepan.
• Heat slowly.
• Mix the yolks with the potato or cornflour and add this to the rhubarb and heat till it thickens.
• Add the butter and mix in.
• Leave to go cold before use.

A few thoughts on the origin & history of meringues:

• Meringue – a French word.
• Swiss village of Meiringen.
• Improved by Italian chef Gasparini.
• From Polish word – marzynka – a day dream?
• Made by the chef for the exiled king of Poland, Stanisław Leszczyński (1677 – 1766), Duke of Lorraine (1737 -1766).
• His daughter, Maria, was married to Louis XV of France and she introduced them to the court.
• In Polish – beza(sing)) bezy(pl) – link to – buzi – kiss?
• French meringue – whisk eggs till stiff – add sugar and whisk again.
• Italian meringue – uses sugar syrup.
• Swiss meringue – sugar and whites heated over a water bath.
• Addition of cornflour – strengthens the egg white.

Meringue

• I used 4 egg whites & 200g icing sugar.
• Place the whites into a grease free bowl.
• Whisk till stiff.
• Add icing sugar and whisk again till stiff.

• Preheat the oven to GM 1 -140°C.
• Cover the base with the rhubarb filling and level it out.
• Cover the rhubarb with the meringue and level it out
• Put back into the oven for 45 to 60 minutes.
• Cut the cake into squares when cool to serve.

Served here on  Royal Doulton – Counterpoint tea plates 1973 – 1987.