Almonds and rhubarb are a classic combination — perfect for afternoon tea. To save time you could use a ready-made 23cm pastry shell.
Serves: 8 – 10
Prep: 15 minutes (plus refrigeration)
Cook: 1 hour 10 minutes – 1 hour 25 minutes
Ingredients:
Pastry:
300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
50g icing sugar
175g unsalted butter or margarine, chilled and cut into small cubes
1 large egg yolk
A pinch of salt
Finely grated zest of one orange
1-2 tbsp ice cold water
Filling:
225g unsalted butter or margarine at room temperature
225g caster sugar
3 large eggs
50g plain flour
150g ground almonds
½ tsp almond extract, optional
350g rhubarb washed, dried and sliced into 5cm-pieces
2 tbsp caster sugar
Ground almonds and icing sugar for decoration
METHOD
- To make the pastry: tip the flour, icing sugar and a pinch of salt into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until combined.
- Add the butter/margarine and orange zest and pulse until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
- Add the yolk and 1 tbsp of the iced water then pulse until it starts to clump together. If it looks dry you may need to add a little more water – up to a tablespoon.
- Tip the dough onto your work surface, pat into a disc and wrap with cling film before refrigerating for 30 minutes.
- Pre heat oven to 180°C, flour the work surface and top of the pastry and roll out to line a 23-cm deep pie tin.
- Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork, Cover the pastry with baking parchment, fill with baking beans and blind bake for approximately 18 minutes.
- Remove the parchment and baking beans and return the pastry to the oven for a further 5 minutes to dry out the base.
- For the filling: beat the butter and sugar together with a stand or hand mixer until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time beating well between each addition. If it looks like it’s curdling, add a dessert spoon of flour to bring it back together. Add the almond extract if using. Fold in the ground almonds and remaining flour then scrape into the pastry case.
- Arrange the rhubarb over the surface packing it in well as it shrinks on cooking. Sprinkle the 2 tbsp sugar over the top, place the tart on a baking sheet and in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes – 1 hour until set. If it’s browning too quickly, cover loosely with foil.
- Allow tart to cool and then garnish with flaked almonds and icing sugar.
