Rhubarb Custard Tart
Serving up a slice of this Rhubarb Custard Tart is the ideal way to use lemon peel in the custard and bright rhubarb for a dessert that helps to get through the end of the dark winter days.
Servings 8
Calories 240kcal
Ingredients
Shortcrust Pastry
- 150 grams / 1 ¼ cups plain flour
- ¼ teaspoon sea or kosher salt
- 100 grams / 3.5 ounces butter chilled and cubed
- 45 grams / 1 medium egg
- 45 grams / 3 tablespoons ice water
Lemon Custard
- 500 milliliters / 2 cups whole milk
- 1 inch lemon peel pith removed
- 55 grams / 3 large egg yolks room temperature
- 100 grams / ½ cup superfine/caster sugar
- 30 grams / ¼ cup cornstarch
- 14 grams / 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Rhubarb
- 140 grams / 2 stalks rhubarb green removed and sliced into ½ inch slices
- 25 grams / 2 tablespoons superfine/caster sugar
Instructions
Shortcrust pastry
- Place the flour, salt, butter and egg into a bowl and cut with a butter knife or pastry cutter until the butter is slightly larger than peas and the mixture resembles a rough crumble.
- Add in a little of the ice water and stir to combine, continuing 1 tablespoon at a time until a dough forms, but ensuring it’s not too sticky, but that there are no dry portions in the base of the bowl.
- Press firmly into a disc, wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 220C/425F.
- Lightly flour your surface and both sides of your dough and roll out to ¼ inch thickness.
- Flipping the dough and adding a small sprinkle of flour, where necessary.
- Roll the dough around your rolling pin and place into your pie dish.
- Pressing firmly into the dish and trimming the edges.
- Return the dough to the fridge for 20 minutes to cool.
- Remove, pierce with a fork all over.
- Lay greaseproof paper therein and fill with baking beans or rice right up to the edges of your crust.
- Bake for 20 minutes until the edges are golden, remove the baking beans and continue to bake until golden all over, approximately 10 further minutes.
- Remove from the oven and brush 2 tablespoons egg whites over the entire pastry, making sure it’s spread as thinly as possible.
- Set the pastry aside to cool completely.
Rhubarb
- Lower the oven to 160C/320F.
- For the rhubarb, place into a bowl alongside the sugar and stir to combine. Set aside.
Lemon custard
- For the lemon custard, place the milk and lemon peel into a saucepan on medium heat, cooking until bubbling at the edges.
- Remove from the heat and discard the lemon peel.
- Meanwhile, place the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch into a bowl and whisk until pale and combined.
- Pour ¼ cup of the hot milk into the egg yolks and whisk swiftly to combine.
- Continue adding in portions of the hot milk to the egg yolks until fully combined.
- Pour the custard into the saucepan and return to the heat.
- Whisking until thickened and bubbling.
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
- Pour into your pastry case and smooth out evenly.
- Press the rhubarb into the custard so just the top of the pieces are poking out of the custard.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until it’s just a little jiggly.
- Remove and allow to cool fully and then refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
- Slice and serve.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Rhubarb: Fresh rhubarb is best here as it soaks up the sugar and gives us the perfect sweet interior. You could use strawberries, blackberries or even cherries instead, if you prefer.
- Sugar: Superfine or caster sugar is best here thanks to it's fine texture that will help draw out the moisture in our rhubarb whilst also dissolving perfectly helping give us a smooth filling.
- Lemon peel: We only need a small piece of the citrus zest to give our custard hints of the lemon flavor. You can omit, if you don't like the flavor, though this adds depth to the dessert.
- Corn starch: Sometimes termed cornflour in certain parts of the globe. Corn starch is what gives our custard that thick texture without being runny. It does need to be heated to 95C/203F before it is activated to thicken.
- Pie or tart dish: The dish used here was 23 centimeters or 9 inches in diameter.
- Feel free to use storebought pastry: If pastry is something you don’t have time to make or you aren’t comfortable making or simply don’t have the resources to hand (e.g a rolling pin or baking beans or rice). Store bought pastry either pre-made or simply a block of store bought pastry that you have to blind bake will work a trick also! Or a pre-baked pastry case.
- Make ahead: You can make the pastry, cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days before rolling out into the dish, baking and adding the custard and rhubarb. Additionally, you could also cold infuse the portion of milk with lemon peel in a covered container overnight in the fridge before making the custard. You can also make the custard ahead, cover to avoid forming a skin and refrigerating for up to 2 days before assembling in the pastry and topping with the rhubarb.
Nutrition
Calories: 240kcal