The Hour

The Hour’s Chef’s Apprentice competition has just come to a close, and the winner of the contest, to find the hottest up-and-coming chefs, is Craig Hawthorn.

Here is the recipe for Craig’s winning dessert, rhubarb crumble. It’s made with a taste-bud tingling combination of vanilla, ginger, lemon, toffee sauce and rhubarb and is too good for words!

If you fancy trying it out yourself, here is Craig’s recipe.

Ingredients:
* 250g rhubarb
* 1 vanilla pod
* 100g sugar
* 2 inch piece of fresh ginger
* Juice of half a lemon
 
Ingredients for the crumble:
* 50g plain white flour
* 35g Demerara sugar
* 30g unsalted butter, cubed
* Pinch of cinnamon
* Pinch of sea salt
* Toffee Sauce;
* 35g Demerara sugar
* Half pint of double cream
 
Method:
1. Preheat an oven to 200 degrees celcius
2. De-seed a vanilla pod and mix with the rhubarb. Grate the fresh ginger into the rhubarb and vanilla and combine
3. Heat a heavy bottomed pan and add the rhubarb mix, once this begins to sizzle and hiss, slowly add the caster sugar until the natural juice from the rhubarb mixes with the sugar to form a caramel
4. By hand or in a food processor mix all the dry ingredients of the crumble mix and slowly add the cold unsalted butter until a crumble if formed. If the mixture seems too moist add more flour, if too dry add more butter
5. Spoon rhubarb from the pan into ramekins until half full and place the crumble mix on top
6. Bake in an oven for 20 minutes
7. For the toffee sauce caramelise the Demerara sugar in a pan and slowly add the double cream taking care not to boil the cream. Add the cream until a sauce-like consistency is achieved
8. On a white plate, place a saucer with the ramekin of crumble mix on top. Spoon the toffee sauce down the side of the plate and serve with a wee dram of good malt whisky, which can either be drank or poured into the crumble mix

Enjoy!