Rhubarb and Prune Trail Custard
Sour dried rhubarb, sweet prunes, and a starch custard built from milk powder. A Norwegian holiday dessert with the fridge taken out of it.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 3.8 oz
- cal / oz
- 137
- protein
- 9 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- 400 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Car camping
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried rhubarb | 1 oz | about 300 g fresh, sliced thin and dried at home |
|---|---|---|
| Pitted prunes | 1/3 cup | chopped small so they rehydrate fast |
| Sugar | 4 tbsp | split: 3 for the compote, 1 for the custard |
| Potato starch | 1 tsp | |
| Whole milk powder | 1/2 cup | |
| Cornstarch | 1 tbsp | |
| Vanilla sugar | 1 tsp | or a scraped vanilla bean carried in the sugar bag |
| Salt | a pinch | |
| Almonds | 3 tbsp | coarsely chopped at home |
Method
- Put the rhubarb, prunes, and 3 tbsp sugar in the pot with 200 ml water. Bring it up and simmer low for about eight minutes, until the fruit is soft and the rhubarb has gone to threads.
- Stir the potato starch into a splash of cold water in your cup, then pour it into the fruit off the heat. It thickens as you stir. Do not boil it again or it thins back out.
- Scrape the compote into a mug or a freezer bag. Wipe the pot with a spoon; it does not need to be clean.
- Whisk the milk powder, cornstarch, vanilla sugar, remaining sugar, and salt into 200 ml of cold water in the pot. Lumps now are lumps forever, so break them up before any heat.
- Heat gently and stir the whole time. It goes from thin to coating the spoon in two or three minutes. Pull it before it simmers.
- Spoon the compote back over the custard, or layer them in two cups. Almonds on top. Eat warm, or set the pot in a creek and eat it cool.
The original is a Norwegian Constitution Day dessert: stewed rhubarb and prunes under an egg-yolk vanilla cream, set with gelatin and finished with whipped cream. None of that survives a pack. Six yolks and a pint of cream are a refrigeration problem, and gelatin needs hours of cold to set. So the custard here is thickened with cornstarch and built on whole milk powder, which does the same job on a stove in three minutes and carries dry.
What matters is keeping the two halves distinct. Rhubarb is sour and prunes are sweet, and the compote is the sharp part; the custard is the flat, fatty part that makes it a dessert instead of stewed fruit. Cook them separately even though it means an extra scrape of the pot. The starches also need different handling: potato starch sets the fruit off the heat and breaks if it boils, cornstarch needs heat to do anything at all.
Packing
Dried rhubarb, prunes, and compote sugar in one bag. Milk powder, cornstarch, vanilla sugar, sugar, and salt premixed in a second bag. Potato starch in a small twist of foil. Almonds separate so they stay crisp.
Variations
- Skip the second bag and pour the compote over instant vanilla pudding powder if you would rather not babysit a custard.
- A spoonful of powdered coconut milk in place of the milk powder makes it dairy-free, though it sets softer.
- Dried apple rings in place of half the rhubarb if you want it less sour.
https://www.matprat.no/oppskrifter/tradisjon/grunnlovsdessert