Martha Stewart is trying to kill us one recipe at a time

If you haven't noticed from the last couple of posts, I have been on a Martha Stewart kick. I rediscovered my Martha Stewart Living annual cookbooks and couldn't figure why I would have forgotten them...after this recipe...I remember. This recipe has so much butter and sugar in it, I am going to have to double my workouts just to get rid of the small serving I had. I was so happy about rediscovering my Martha Stewart cookbooks that I ran off and bought TWO MORE cookbooks on Amazon.com! I'm gonna get fat!

Alex tells me every summer how much he loves rhubarb so this year, I decided to indulge him and found this recipe. I have never cooked with rhubarb and now I am in love. It is yummy and tangy and sweet. It really combines well with the strawberries. Oh the strawberries! We got a 4 pound package of strawberries at Costco and they look like RUBIES!

This recipe isn't hard to make per se, but it is involved. There are three separate parts to this recipe. You've got the cake, the crumble and of course the rhubarb and strawberries. The worst part of this recipe is that when all is said and done and the coffee cake is out of the oven, on your plate and jumping into your mouth...you have no idea how much butter and sugar is in the yummy concoction. DANGEROUS!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Coffee Cake:

1 1/4 cups chilled unsalted butter (2 1/2 sticks)

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/3 cup cornstarch

2 3/4 cups sugar

1 pound strawberries, hulled and sliced

1 1/2 pounds rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Brush a 9-by-12-by-3 inch baking pan with pam and set aside. make fruit sauce: Combine lemon juice, cornstarch, and 1 cup sugar in a medium sauce pan. Add strawberries and rhubarb; cook, stirring frequently over medium heat, until rhubarb is soft and liquid has thickened, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl; let cool.

Make crumb topping: Combine 3/4 cup sugar and 3/4 cup flour in a medium bowl. Melt 1/4 cup butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Drizzle butter over flour mixture; using your hands, mix until crumbly. Set aside.

Make cake batter: Whisk together remaining 3 cups flour and 1 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Using a pastry knife or two forks, cut remaining 1 cup butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal. In a separate small bowl, mix eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Spread half the cake batter evenly into the prepared pan. (The cake batter came out a little thicker than I expected and made it a little difficult to spread) Top with half the fruit sauce. Carefully spread the remaining batter over the fruit, and top with the remaining fruit sauce. Sprinkle with the crumb topping.

Bake until cake is golden brown, about 1 hour. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into squares.

Alex and I had this warm right out of the oven and the fruit sauce damn near burned the crap out of my mouth...but Oh! was it yummy!!!!! I would have added some homemade vanilla bean ice cream if I wasn't so concerned about the calories. I had another small taste again this morning after the coffee cake had cooled and it was EVEN BETTER cooled down. Honestly, I think it is better cooled. That doesn't mean I am going to scarf it down just because it is cooled. Alex is taking half into work and I am taking the other half to spread the caloric love!