Strawberry, Rhubarb & Pistachio Bars – crisp, buttery shortbread base topped with pistachio paste and covered with tangy, sweet rhubarb and strawberries.  Jump to Recipe 

Following last week’s epic birthday cake, I thought a recipe a little less time and energy intensive was necessary this week – something that doesn’t take a day of planning and multiple components of cake layers, buttercream, lemon curd, meringue, cooking time, decoration time… instead, something you might make quickly on the morning you have friends over for coffee, for an easy dessert, or just to fill the tins for weekday baking. If you are anything like me, morning tea coffee doesn’t feel quite complete without something sweet alongside it.

Enter these strawberry, rhubarb & pistachio bars. Adapted from last summer’s apricot version (and one of the first recipes I posted here!), I remember being surprised at just how good the pistachio frangipane was when coupled with fresh apricots, a sweet nutty paste that is quite transformed from raw pistachios still tucked in their shell. However, apricot season hasn’t quite got underway yet, and with the abundance of strawberries around here it seemed the obvious replacement.

It really worked. A crisp, buttery shortbread-like base is topped with pistachio paste and covered with tangy, sweet rhubarb and strawberries, with the time in the oven bringing out the ripe, oozy fruit juices and bright pink colour.

All the decadent Thanksgiving recipes around lately had me feeling a little out of it here in New Zealand, where it isn’t celebrated and we are heading into hot and humid summer weather – so I figure this slice skips straight into Christmas colours, all green and red and celebratory. If you are in the Northern hemisphere, you could try replacing the strawberries with a different fruit, but be careful with frozen berries as they might be too juicy/liquidy for the base. You could also change up the type of nut – I imagine a walnut paste with caramelized apples and caramel sauce drizzled over (coupled with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, of course!) would go down pretty well. Or a hazelnut base with chocolate chips and roast pears scattered on top for a nutella-like combo…

It does look its best on the day it is made, covered in a dusting of icing sugar and sliced warm, but kept in the fridge it lasts a while. Best of all, all the work is done by a food processor or blender, meaning limited dishes and less than half an hour prep time.

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Homemade crumpets with passionfruit curd, a nutty hazelnut crumble and fresh strawberries – best eaten fresh on a Sunday morning!  Jump to Recipe 

Today is Thursday. My first exam is on Tuesday.

I should probably be a little more stressed.

Unfortunately, it seems like that stress (and therefore motivation to study) only hits in the two days before the exam. Bad timing really – most opportunities to stuff information into my brain have already passed.

It also means that my procrastination skills have had serious practice in the last few days. It even got to the point that yesterday I downloaded an app that uses the Pomodoro Technique of time management to give you 25 minute bursts of study with 5 minute breaks in between – apparently allowing for optimum focus and brain function. Although I think it has helped, in that I now think about study more like an exercise session, aiming to get 6 sets of 25 minutes done before lunch (like YES, 4 down and 2 to go!), even the act of researching apps to download was itself a form of procrastination. It seems to me that I have two main procrastination settings:

1. Productive procrastination: this is the type that I don’t mind so much, as I am also getting (kind of) useful things done. Time is spent getting coffee, writing blog posts, editing photos, going out for meals (I just noticed the food theme there…) reading and exercising. Even though I am not actively studying, I figure at least something is being accomplished (if you can call coffee an accomplishment).
2. Unproductive procrastination – or TIME WASTING: this is the worst. The worst. And the awful thing is that I can’t seem to stop myself from doing it. These are the times that you find yourself scrolling aimlessly through social media feeds and news websites until you suddenly look at the clock and realise another half hour has passed – and yet you still can’t rip your eyes away. Sometimes you even scroll through facebook on your computer, then go through instagram and snap chat on your phone, then end up back on facebook again – like anything has actually changed in the last ten minutes. SO STUPID. The key times for this to occur seems to be right before a study session, and right before bed (like, just go to sleep already!)

Does anyone else have this problem? I’m sure if I had kitchen access (i.e. not at college) I would also be an expert at procrasti-baking. Brownies would be coming out my ears.

And isn’t it sad that my procrastination has got SO good that I can even spend time analysing how I procrastinate?

Moving on. These crumpets. Warm, crispy edged, yeasty and air-pocketed, slathered with dollops of tangy, rich passionfruit curd, nutty hazelnut crumble and bites of fresh strawberries. You need them in your life. Crumpets are fun – the batter is almost pancake-like in consistency (no, you will not be kneading it!) with yeasty flavours of bread but cooked in a pan with big air holes emerging on the surface, ready to be filled with passionfruit curd – they are the ultimate English morning tea treat. You will need some form of metal ring to contain that batter though while they cook – I used egg rings like these or these, but any similar metal ring will do.

The crumpets are from a food52 recipe (by Izzy Hossack) and were so good I didn’t change a thing, apart from doubling the recipe because we are hungry people around here. The passionfruit curd is hard to get wrong – just keep stirring over the waterbath until it thickens – and you will be rewarded with the best curd you have ever tried (seriously, it is like lemon curd but even better. Mind-blowing). Any remaining will keep in the fridge to be smeared on toast, added to ice cream or just eaten by the spoonful. The crumble is the key texture contrast to the slightly chewy crumpet and smooth curd – nutty and crunchy, it is like a crumble topping without the fruit underneath – and we all know that is the best part. Strawberries add a hint of freshness, balancing out the sweetness and rich flavours of the other components.

Although a bit of a mouthful to say (crumpets with passionfruit curd, hazelnut crumble and strawberries), they really aren’t hard to make. Perfect for brunch – just set out all the components for everyone to devise their own perfect proportions of topping to crumpet, and watch it disappear.

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