Rhubarb tart

Rhubarb season is here! Well at least in Ireland. This is one of my favourite seasons, as I’m a big rhubarb lover. When I started to plant things in the garden, I knew that I definitely wanted to grow my own rhubarb. I even if I’m not a great gardener, I find that rhubarb is quite easy to grow. Just needs lots of fertiliser at the beginning of the season.

Anyway, there’s no need to grow your own as you can just buy it in the shop. I thought I’d share some of my favourite rhubarb recipes, starting with rhubarb tart.

This makes 1 tart

Pastry:

225 grams of plain flour

1 tbsp of icing sugar

135 grams of cold butter

1 medium egg

(You might need to add a little bit of cold water as well)

Filling

3 -4 big stalks of rhubarb (400 grams)

120 grams of sugar

A shallow 9” tart dish or an 8” deeper one

Start with the pastry

Mix the flour and icing sugar together in a bowl. Cut the butter into cubes and add it to the flour. You can use a food processor for this, if so blitz together quickly until a crumbly mixture.

Or you can just mix using your hands. The trick is not to over mix it.

Crack the egg in a glass and whisk around using a fork. Add most of it to your pastry (you will use what’s left as egg wash before baking).

Mix until everything is combined, if it’s still a little crumbly then just add a little bit of cold water (1-2 tsp). Wrap in cling film and leave to chill for 10-20 minutes.

Turn the oven on 180 degrees, 160 fan.

In the meantime, chop the rhubarb into 1-2 cm pieces. Place in a bowl, then add the sugar and mix around to cover all the rhubarb pieces. I also like to add either some cardamom or cinnamon, but this is if course optional.

Take out your pastry and cut in half. Roll out the first half on a lightly floured surface.

Place it in the bottom of the tart dish. Add the rhubarb and sugar mixture.

Roll out the rest of the pastry and place it on top. Cut off any leftover pastry and seal the edges using a fork or your fingers. Make a little cut in the centre of the tart to leave out steam. If you wish you can make little leaves using the leftover pastry.

Brush the top of the tart with the egg left from when you made the pastry.

I would recommend to place your pastry dish on a baking tray, just in case some of the filling spills out.

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 min until golden.

Sprinkle some sugar over the tart as soon as you take it out of the oven. Enjoy!