Cake/bar cookie to make in advance

[Chufi]

I'm looking for a recipe for a cake or bar cookie or pastry that I can make on a Friday night, leave at room temp (no room in the fridge or freezer) and then serve on Sunday night. It needs to be relatively simple to make and if it could have rhubarb, that would be awesome (it's for my birthday party, which is themed: Klary's favorites )

I thought about brownies, but, silly as it sounds, I'd rather not do chocolate this time.

any ideas appreciated!

oh and should serve about 25....

Edited April 8, 2009 by Chufi (log)

[rickster]

I think Baking With Julia has a recipe for a Hungarian Shortbread Bar Cookie that has a layer of homemade rhubarb jam in the middle. Unfortunately I don't have the recipe.

[gfron1]

yeah I love that recipe - PM me if you need the recipe. I also love the Galette Bretton recipe from Amernick's book - she uses grapefruit, but rhubarb would be nice too.

[Eliza]

I'm rhubarb crazy. a few ideas:

Rhubarb-white chocolate tart

Rhubarb-Almond bars

also, I couldn't find an online recipe for this, but if you have Baking with Julia, you must immediately make the rhubarb upside-down cake. i make it pretty much weekly in the spring. lovely with honey-sweetened whipped cream and a cuppa coffee.

[Chufi]

yeah I love that recipe - PM me if you need the recipe.  I also love the Galette Bretton recipe from Amernick's book - she uses grapefruit, but rhubarb would be nice too.

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it looks great. I found the recipe here.

Now 2 questions:

could I really make this on Friday and serve Sunday.. or would I be better off making the dough on Friday and freezing it, then assembling and baking on Sunday? Could I freeze the dough for 2 days or would it be too hard to grate?

sorry if these are stupid questions.. with baking, I need all the help I can get

[baroness]

I saved the 'Hungarian' shortbread recipe from another online source that used jam as the filling, but haven't tried it yet.

These notes from a review of the recipe may be helpful:

"i definitely recommend baking the bottom crust first because if turns out uncooked if you don`t. 25 minutes should do it. then add the jam and topping and cook for the time the recipe says, it is easy and really tastes great. keeps well too. "

If you pre-bake the bottom as suggested, I think you could finish it all on Friday -- or at least the bottom crust.

[gfron1]

I've never had that bottom crust problem but I can see it being helpful to pre-bake. As far as advanced-ness...you could also pre-assemble it all and let is sit in the fridge until you're ready to bake. Its a forgiving recipe. Although the recipe is typically cooled to room temp, I might be inclined in this instance to serve it warm with a scoop of ice cream.