Deep Dish Rhubarb & Apple Streusel

Oh my God, this is so good.

I am such a cake freak lately, I can't be without a cake in my kitchen.
Once it is gone, the late night baker has to whip up another.
Sorry for all the calories.

This simple recipe can be adapted using any fruit you like. It's called a streusel or buttery crumble in my book, sort of like a cake, but not.

So the story goes, a reader from Australia left a comment on my rhubarb tart last week and said that instead of pairing rhubarb with strawberries like we do, they pair it with apples! I liked that idea.

I found this fabulous sounding recipe for a "deep dish streusel" with apples and rhubarb in the Daily Mail.
I did the best I could with the metric to U.S. conversions and it came out perfect!

Another small issue, the UK cakes call for "golden caster sugar". This is a buttery golden colored superfine sugar, only found in the UK, so what's a girl to do?

I sought the internet for advice, and it never fails me. A few people suggested whizzing turbinado (raw) sugar in the food processor to make it fine and it was great. I think golden brown (light not dark brown) sugar would work here too.

Make sure your butter is very cold otherwise the mixture will cream into the dough, you want to be crumbly.

Deep Dish Rhubarb & Apple Streusel: (adapted from Daily Mail)

For the Crumble:

250g all purpose flour (approx 2 cups)
125g ground almonds (1 cup of almond meal)
125g golden caster sugar (5/8 cup or 4 1/2 oz)
250g chilled unsalted butter, diced (1 cup or 2 sticks)

For the Fruit:

3 medium size apples (I used Granny Smith), peeled and sliced
4 large stalks rhubarb, cut into pieces (never use the leaves, they are poisonous)
1/2 cup sugar
shake of cinnamon

Mix up fruit with the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.

In a food processor, whiz together the flour, almonds, caster sugar and butter pieces until they resemble a coarse crumbly meal.
Make sure your food processor bowl is big enough, there is a lot of ingredients in this, mine almost overflowed.

In an 8" springform cake tin (not a 9", pay attention), distribute half the crumbly dough mixture into the pan and going up the sides. Use your hands for best distribution. Pat down so the mixture sticks to the pan.

Now fill the dough with the fruit filling, pressing down to evenly distribute.

Pour the rest of the crumble filling on top of the fruit, and again press down so it fills the pan and sides. It will form a crust when baking.

Bake for 1 hour in a 375F oven. Let rest and cool completely before unmolding cake tin sides.

WONDERFUL!