Rhubarb Frangipane Tart

Rhubarb Frangipane Tart

• 14 Sept 2009

I don't make jam very often as I rarely eat it. I've always been a vegemite on toast girl. In the past, I've made cherry jam which was delicious, plum jam which I overcooked so it was closer to toffee than jam and peach and passionfruit jam - but it was some time ago.

As it's rhubarb season here I decided to make a rhubarb frangipane tart but first I had to make some rhubarb jam. I used a Skye Gyngell recipe that I found online and made a half batch. It seemed to work out okay but I wasn't planning to make the tart for another week.

A week later I made a batch of almond pastry, some oven baked rhubarb flavoured with orange and a 2 egg vanilla frangipane mixture and proceeded to construct the tart. I carefully measured and cut the rhubarb to fit the dimensions of the tart but you could always serve the oven baked rhubarb on the side. When the tart was baked I glazed the rhubarb with some apricot jam, which was the only item not in my cupboard so at 10.00 a.m. on Sunday I was standing in the queue at the supermarket. I took the tart into work on Monday and the verdict?

You can always tell if something is well received by the length of time before it's devoured and the tart disappeared quickly. As I've been away, my piece of tart has been waiting for me in the freezer. I tasted the tart last night when I arrived home and it's a beauty. The tang of the rhubarb and grapefruit jam is balanced by the vanilla frangipane filling. And the best news? I still have half a piece left for my dessert tonight.

Here's the recipe for you.  For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Rhubarb Frangipane Tart - makes one rectangular tart

Pastry 

¼ cup icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)

¼ cup almond meal

1⅓ cups plain flour

110 g (4 oz) cold unsalted butter, diced

1 egg, lightly beaten

Cold water

½ cup rhubarb and grapefruit jam

1 quantity oven baked rhubarb, cut into 10 cm lengths to fit the tart

Optional - apricot jam to glaze

Frangipane

100g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

100g almond meal

2 tbs plain flour

Pastry

To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes. 

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured board, then line a rectangular tart tin with the pastry and return to the fridge while you prepare the filling. The pastry freezes well so just wrap any remaining pastry in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. 

Preheat oven to 190°C. To make the filling cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together until pale and fluffy. Mix in the eggs one at a time followed by the flour and ground almonds. This should form a soft batter. You can also do this step in the food processor.

To assemble the tart, remove that tart shell from the fridge. Cover the base of the tart with the jam. Carefully cover the jam with the frangipane filling. Smooth the top with a knife. Arrange the rhubarb lengths decoratively over the frangipane filling. Place the tart on a baking tray to catch any spills before placing in the preheated oven. Bake for 45 minutes – 1 hours or until the filling is set and the pastry nicely browned. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

When cold, glaze the top of the tart with some thinned, warmed apricot jam if desired. Unmould and cut into slices to serve.

I've had the day off and it's been a busy one. Back to work for me tomorrow,
Bye for now,

Jillian