Rhubarb is one of my favorite spring foods, so I was pleased to find a hundred-year-old recipe for Rhubarb Turnovers. The turnovers were lovely.
Here’s the original recipe:
I was intrigued by the idea of using syrup from canned fruit as the topping for the Rhubarb Turnovers, so I used the syrup from a can of peaches canned in heavy syrup. A lemon sauce would also be tasty.
The instructions called for “red strawberry rhubarb.” The rhubarb I used was not particularly red, so the turnovers may not have been as attractive as they would have been if a redder rhubarb had been used, but they still looked nice.
I interpreted the instructions to roll the dough out to “less than 1/2 inch thick” to mean about 1/3 inch thick. I ended up with a few more turnovers than the 12 indicated in the recipe.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Rhubarb Turnovers
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 cups rhubarb (cut into 1-inch pieces)
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
5 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk
water and sugar
lemon sauce or syrup from any kind of canned fruit (I used syrup from peaches canned in heavy syrup.)
Combine the sugar and 1/2 cup water in a saucepan. Using medium heat bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the sugar syrup reaches the thread stage (225◦ F.). Add rhubarb pieces and cook until the rhubarb is soft and tender. Remove from heat.
In the meantime, preheat oven to 400◦ F. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder into a mixing bowl; then cut in the butter until the pieces are small (about the size of a peas). Add milk and mix using a fork until dough starts to cling together. Roll the dough on a prepared surface to about 1/3-inch thick. Cut the rolled dough into 4-inch rounds. (I used an inverted champagne coupe glass to cut the rounds.)
Using a slotted spoon, put a tablespoon of the cooked rhubarb in the center of each round. Fold in half. Moisten edges with water and seal by pressing edges with a fork. Put on baking tray, and bake for 18 minutes or until lightly browned. Removed from oven and use a pastry brush to brush with water, and then sprinkle with sugar. Return the turnovers to the oven for an additional two minutes. Remove from oven.
Serve hot with lemon sauce or the syrup from any kind of canned fruit.
This sounds very tasty. The original recipe was easy to follow this time. It didn’t feel like as much had been left out.
I agree – The old recipe was easy to follow, though I wished that there had been a list of ingredients at the top.
I do like having all the ingredients at the top of the recipe. Do you know when that became a common practice?
I think that home economics experts in the early 20th century really encouraged standardizing recipe formats, including listing ingredients at the top. The 1925 cookbooks and magazines that I have often list the ingredients at the top of the recipe, but not always.
And my rhubarb is starting to poke out and reach for the sun….
So is mine. I actually purchased the rhubarb I used in this recipe at the grocery store.
I planted rhubarb this year. Fingers crossed it does well.
Hopefully it will do well. My sense is that rhubarb is generally fairly easy to grow (though my rhubarb never gets as large as I wish it would).
Sounds delicious! The dough is similar to the way scones are made. It’s amazing how many different kinds of pastry can be made with the same few ingredients.
That’s what makes cooking so fun and creative. There’s so many ways to combine ingredients to create foods that have wide variation in texture, taste, and appearance.
These look beautiful! And I love that it doesn’t rely on strawberries!
So do I. It’s good to know that there’s someone besides me who doesn’t care much for the the strawberry-rhubarb combination. Now that I think about it, I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a hundred-year-old recipe that combines strawberries and rhubarb – that must have first become popular a little later.
I think you might be right about that Sheryl! I don’t recall seeing it either, although they are in season together.
I make a strawberry-rhubarb crisp because it is my grandson’s absolute favorite, but I’d rather leave out the berries.
Both strawberry-rhubarb and just plain rhubarb crisps sound really good. I haven’t made a rhubarb crisp in a long time. Thanks for the reminder. I’m going to have a make one this year.
Would you like to email me one please?! My mouth is watering!!
Wish I could send it virtually. 🙂
Sheryl these sound wonderful and just what my husband would enjoy! Father’s Day is coming so this just might be his surprise!
I think that he’d enjoy them.
I know he would!
My father grew rhubarb in Alaska. He was disappointed when he wasn’t able to grow it in Louisiana when we moved back! I remember my mother making rhubarb pie.
Wow, I never thought about which fruits and vegetables could be raised in Alaska. It’s awesome that rhubarb grows there (and too bad that doesn’t grow Louisiana).
I can imagine the canned syrup would be ok spooned over these! I remember rhubarb from childhood living in a temperate zone but here in the sub-tropics, we don’t see it!
cheers
sherry
Living in a cold climate, I tend to think about the many plants that I can’t raise here. I’m always surprised that some fruits and vegetables don’t grow in areas that are too warm for them.
It’s been so long since I’ve tasted rhubarb… one of my favorites growing up 😊.
It’s also one of my favorites. Rhubarb is still common in the spring around here, though based on readers’ comments, my sense is that there is wide variation across regions regarding its availability.