This a guest post from Rose, also known as Pixie, a New Yorker now living in the UK. Pixie blogs at You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato and A SweeTart.

I consider myself to be a fairly ‘new cook’. There are a few recipes I’ve learned from my Maltese mother and my blog is my personal journey of learning how to cook; trying new recipes and improving the few I do know. Originally, living in NY a majority of my life I love food from all cultures. My main food blog is You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato and I’ve recently discovered how much I enjoy baking and started my sweet blog, A SweeTart.

Rhubarb has been appearing everywhere and since I’d never tasted it before I thought I would attempt Nigella Lawson’s Rhubarb Tart recipe from one of her many books, How To Be a Domestic Goddess. I chose this recipe because I’ve yet to try any of her recipes from this book.

Rhubarb Tart

Ingredients
for the filling
1kg rhubarb (untrimmed weight)
300g caster sugar

for the pastry
150g plain flour
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
85g cold unsalted butter, diced
85g cold cream cheese, diced
2-3 tablespoons cold double cream, to bind

for the cream cheese filling
200g cream cheese
200ml double cream
2 tablespoons caster sugar
4 tablespoons muscat or rum

for the glaze
6 tablespoons rhubarb juice, reserved from stewing

Equipment
1 deep 23cm flan tin or shallow 25cm tin.

Method
Heat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5.

Trim and cut the rhubarb into 2cm pieces, place in a shallow ovenproof dish (I use a Pyrex dish of about 20cm x 30cm), pour the sugar over the rhubarb and toss it all together so that the sugar is well dispersed. Cover with foil and cook for about 45 minutes, or until tender. When you take the rhubarb out, slip in a baking sheet. When the rhubarb cools, strain it and reserve the juice.

Meanwhile, get on with making the pastry. Using a food processor, mix the dry ingredients, then add the butter and cheese and pulse to make a crumbly mixture. Bind with the cream, pulsing sparingly. Let the pastry rest in the fridge for at least 20 minutes before lining your tart tin. After you’ve rolled the pastry out and lined the tin with it, put it back in the fridge for another 20 minutes.

Remove from the fridge and line with foil. Fill the pastry case with baking beans (though you could just as well use any dried beans) and put on the sheet in the oven for 15 minutes. Gingerly remove the beans and foil and cook for a further 5 minutes or until it’s turning golden brown and is cooked through. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

When you want to assemble the tart (and you can do the steps above a good day in advance, though keep the cooked and cooled flan case in an airtight container), reduce about 6 tablespoons of the reserved juice to a syrup by boiling it robustly in a small saucepan. Don’t leave this unattended, though, as the juices will become thickly syrupy within a matter of minutes.

Now for the filling: use a whisk, soften the cream cheese, then add the cream, whipping until it has mixed well and thickened slightly. Take care not to over-beat - this must be voluptuous and undulating. Add the sugar and muscat (which is lovely to drink with the tart) or rum, stir to a soft marscapone consistency, then drizzle over your puce-pink glaze. Stand back and admire - then eat.

Makes about 8 slices.

Road Test

Ingredients
Since I didn’t have any muscat and rum was an option, I used 3 tablespoons of dark rum. I believe this was likely the main reason I didn’t care for her filling. Perhaps, white rum would have been better. Still, I feel the rum was overly powerful in the recipe. I would suggest those who attempt her rhubarb tart to get hold of the muscat.

Method
The instructions were quite easy to follow and it’s not very difficult at all. However, I feel she could add a few more sentences to explain the method of making the tart. Such as, explaining the desired firmness of the rhubarb, how thin the pastry should be rolled out, the importance of greasing your tart pan. (New bakers like myself sometimes forget to do these things!). The few changes I made to the recipe was using 3 tablespoons of dark rum, instead of 4 tablespoons and adding a bit of lemon peel to the pastry and allowing a further 10 minutes for the pastry to cook.

Results
The rhubarb was quite shredded, not making it much of a pretty sight. However, it had an interesting tart taste combined with sweetness. For me, the filling was over powerful and the pastry was a disaster. It lacked flavour and I’m still not certain if it was because it was undercooked or it was just the taste of the pastry itself. My father-in-law enjoyed it, so I gave him the rest of the tart (all ¾) of it.

Verdict

I don’t believe I would make this again. There are so many rhubarb recipes out there that I would like to try. I’m not entirely sure what to make of rhubarb yet, it had an interesting tart flavour to it but I’m not convinced of its brilliance.

I’m not completely turned off by rhubarb, but would likely be far fussier about what recipe to follow. I would want one that was previously tested and was given rave reviews. If I were to ever try this recipe again, I would surely make changes to it. I would reduce the cooking time of the rhubarb, lesson or omit the alcohol (perhaps trying muscat instead) and likely get rid of her pastry recipe altogether.