rhubarb - raisin coffeecake

I love sweets, but I eat too many. This Easter season, having joyfully resumed eating them, I am trying to do so more responsibly. They are a most splendid gift from the Creator, and I offer my thanks to him for giving us not just food to sustain our lives, but to make our hearts glad.

For the first time in my decades of hanging out in kitchens, I have been baking cookies these few weeks. It seems to me that a Sweet Thing can be healthy in moderation if one designs it so, and I think that I can do it better than one finds in store-bought cookies. In this, I follow the lead of Diet for a Small Planet, and a lesser-known companion book, Recipes for a Small Planet, where the desserts are not only sweet and delightful, but high in protein, fiber, and other healthy nutrients. Here follows my contribution for today. All measurements are approximate, for I assembled it yesterday in the way I most love -- without measurements, and guessing at what might taste good.

One should begin with the step I too often forget: set the Butter out on the counter so it will not be rock-hard when the time comes for creaming it. While you are at it, wash and cut the Rhubarb into small pieces, put some sugar with it (this sugar is in addition to the half-cup mentioned shortly), and set it aside. Preheat the Oven to 375 or so. Grease a 9" by 9" baking pan.

Then, prepare the Cornell Mix:

1 c. Whole Wheat Flour (it is not worth cooking with the white stuff)
1 T. Soy Flour
1 T. Powdered Buttermilk (I found some at a local grocery; it is great for cooking, because we don't use enough buttermilk in fresh form to be worth purchasing it for a recipe. If you can't find it, use regular powdered milk, or "real" buttermilk, adjusting the liquids that follow)

Add a few more things to the dry ingredients:

1 tsp. Ginger
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda (1/2 tsp. if using regular milk instead of buttermilk)
¼ tsp. Salt (omit if using salted butter)

Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.

The moist ingredients:

½ stick Butter (more or less is fine), preferably unsalted
½ c. Sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
¼ c. Vegetable Oil
about 1 c. Peanut Butter (this is VERY approximate; just throw in a good-sized glop and that will be about right. Either creamy or crunchy peanut butter is fine; whatever you have on hand)
1 Egg
¼ c. (or more) Water

Be mindful of the cow and chicken involved in this enterprise, and buy the butter and eggs from sources where the animals are treated responsibly.

Cream the butter, and cream the sugar into the butter, adding the vanilla extract as you go. Add the vegetable oil and peanut butter, and continue creaming it all together.

In a teacup or small bowl, beat the egg lightly, adding the water to it (especially if the egg is "old." It takes us six months or so to use a dozen eggs, and by the end of that time, they are mostly still quite usable, but drier than they once were; a little water helps it beat up more easily. And always break your egg(s) into a separate bowl, just in case all is not well). Add this mixture to the butter/oil/sugar mix, and blend it all together.

And now, the Additives:

1 c. Quick Oats
1 c. Unsalted Sunflower Seeds (hulled. These are to complement the peanut butter, making a complete protein. And they taste good.)
About 2 cups of Rhubarb
and 1 cup of Raisins (if you have more rhubarb, use less raisins, and vice versa)


The final steps:

Add the Flour mixture to the liquids and mix well.
Add the Oats, Sunflower Seeds, Rhubarb, and Raisins.

Stir it all up and spoon it into the baking pan, smoothing it out so it looks pretty.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour or so, until it browns slightly on top and a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy. It is very crumbly if you eat it while it is still hot (I did; I have no patience), but exceedingly good. A bit of reduced fat vanilla ice cream on top doesn't hurt, either. Once it cools down, it remains quite moist, similar in texture to a carrot cake. As with the same, I suspect it would be good with a cream-cheese frosting, but I'm not going there; "Eat responsibly," I tell myself.

This is pretty good as a high-protein dessert, if you don't mind the modest amount of saturated fat, and the calories. I suspect it has a few.

[P.S. -- if you are going to keep it around for more than three or four days, put it in the refrigerator. With all that rhubarb and sugar, the one I made last Monday has started to ferment, what is left of it, that is.]