Rhubarb Frangipane Tart

I was visiting friends recently admiring their bountiful vege patch only to notice a favourite treat of mine. Rhubarb. To be honest, I'm not actually sure if it is a fruit or a vegetable, it doesn't have seeds, so perhaps it is more a vegetable, but it's best served tart and sweet anyhow.
As I cut the stalks from the plant they bled their red juice all over the scissors so I knew it would be tasty. The stalks were a deep red on the outside, but bright green in the middle. The leaves, which are poisonous were discarded.
Many people add a lot of sugar to rhubarb when they cook it as it is very tart, sour, naturally, however I quite enjoy that contrast, especially paired with a buttery sweet filling like frangipane. So, when I cooked the rhubarb, I left if tart, not adding any sugar, just half a centimetre of orange juice, and a teaspoon of organic vanilla essence.
Frangipane is a french cake or tart filling consisting of creamed butter and sugar, eggs and usually almonds, but any nut can be used.

This recipe was adapted from my friends plum tart recipe. See below for other flavouring ideas. 

Rhubarb & Frangipane Tart

Ingredients

• 200g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 100g butter, cold and cubed 
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons of iced water

• 8 stalks rhubarb
• 2 tsp vanilla essence 
• 1/4 c orange juice, fresh or bottled
• 125g butter, room temp.
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 140g ground almonds
• 45g plain flour 
• brown sugar, for sprinkling

Chop rhubarb into 5cm lengths and place in a heavy based saucepan with orange juice and 1 tsp of vanilla essence. Cover and simmer on a low heat for about 15 mins, until the liquid is red, and rhubarb is soft. Once cooked, feel free to taste it, if you like you can add sugar, but beware that stirring it will cause the rhubarb to turn to mush. I leave mine without sugar, but that's my preference.  Leave to cool in saucepan

In a bowl place cubed butter, flour and salt. Rub together using fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. To speed up the process you can do this in a food processor, which makes it very quick and easy, but less therapeutic. Once rubbed in, add the beaten egg yolk and chilled water, mix to form a firm dough. Cover loosely in glad wrap and chill 30 mins. 

Make a cup of tea and relax for a bit. 
Grease a 22cm tart tin and preheat oven to 180 degrees. 

Remove pastry from the fridge and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Press gently into tin and trim edges. 

Now cream the 125g of room temperature butter and caster sugar till light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then flour, almonds, and remaining vanilla essence. Spoon this filling into the pastry. 

Carefully spoon pieces of the rhubarb flesh onto the frangipane filling and press down gently. 
Sprinkle a few tablespoons of brown sugar over the top 

Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 50 mins. 
Allow to cool slightly before cutting and devouring. 

Serve with any leftover stewed rhubarb and plain yogurt or vanilla ice-cream. 

We all went back for seconds, so maybe just cut larger pieces! We also all agreed that it tasted better the next day... so feel free to make in advance or save some for later. 

Variations - for me and you to try next time. 

• Pear and Ginger. Poach pears in water or wine with a few slices of fresh ginger. Slice and press on top. Add 2 tsp of ginger to the pastry dough also. 
• Plum and Cardamom. Tinned or fresh black doris plums, stoned, halved and pressed in cut side down. Add 1 tsp of cardamom to the frangipane mix. 
• Balsamic Fig. Half figs, press into frangipane cut side up, spoon 1/2 a teaspoon of balsamic into each fig half. Sprinkle with sugar 
• Pistachio and Raspberry. Swap ground almond for ground (unsalted) pistachio, or half and half. Press tinned or fresh raspberries into the frangipane. 

Should you try this recipe or any of these variations, please comment and let me know how they went. Or of you have any other flavour suggestions let me know. 

Happy Creating