I made this recipe this past weekend, with the first rhubarb out of our garden. Dad’s Aunt Florence heard about it on Facebook, and wanted to know what it was, so here’s the recipe! Kudos to Dad’s Aunt Betty from the other half of his family for the recipe. I guess this recipe goes hand in hand with the other Deutsch tradition this week (the whoopie pies), since this is a Mennonite dish.

Pastry
Mix in food processor (can be done by hand, if you roll that way):
3 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 cup lard (or shortening)
1 tsp salt

Add all at once: 2 eggs + enough milk to make 3/4 cup liquid.

Pulse a few times until dough comes together, forming ball by hand if necessary.

Assembly
Roll 1/2 of the dough into 11×15″ pan. I’m lazy, so I just press it into the pan. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp minute tapioca.

Combine 1 cup sugar with 2 tbsp tapioca, and sprinkle over base. Spread 4-5 cups finely chopped rhubarb over sugar. Sprinkle with 1 cup sugar and 1 tbsp tapioca. Cover with remaining pastry. Again, I’m lazy, so I don’t roll it, I break it up into little bits with my fingers and spread it more or less evenly over the top.

Topping (this is the best part)
Combine:
1/2 cup margarine (unsalted butter won’t hurt here)
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups sliced almonds
1 pkg Dr Oetker’s vanilla sugar (using a whole package even if you’re halving the recipe won’t hurt here, either)

Cook gently 2 minutes or use microwave (basically to melt the butter and get it all nice and mixed). Spread over platz.
Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, then 300 for another 30-40.

Excuse me while I go dig a piece out of the fridge and warm it up a touch.

I had a question about the meringue mushrooms I did for my version of the holiday “pine cone” cake that wasn’t a pine cone. They’re really really easy. The recipe can be scaled up if you want more mushrooms.

1 egg white
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp dutch processed cocoa (optional)

Beat the egg white until frothy, then add the cream of tartar. Beat to medium peaks, then gradually add the sugar, beating to stiff peaks. If desired, add a tablespoon or so of cocoa for colour. Pipe into a variety of round and tall shapes on parchment paper. You’re piping the stems and tops of the mushrooms separately. A variety of heights of stems works well (between 1/4 and 1 inch tall, or so). Bake in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven, for 1 hr. Turn the oven off and leave door closed for 1 more hour. You’re trying to dry them out more than you are cooking them. Store in an airtight container once cool & crispy.

Close to when ready to serve, take a paring knife and hollow out a small crevice in the middle of the bottom of the caps. This crevice should be about the width of your stems. Pipe a bit of ganache (for me, this was easy, I had some leftover from the biscuit roulade) into the crevice, and stick the stems into it. Don’t do this too far in advance, or your meringues will absorb the moisture from the ganache and start to get soggy. Dust the tops with some cocoa and/or icing sugar for ‘dirt’ & ‘snow’.