Rhubarb & Almond Crumble Tart

Who needs a birthday cake when you can have a tart?! I found this recipe on BBC Good Food online after looking through what felt like hundreds of rhubarb recipes, trying to find one that would make a great alternative to a birthday cake. Served with ice cream, cream or custard, hot or cold, this tart is perfect! And you can always use shop brought shortcrust pastry if you don’t have time to make your own… I won’t tell! Happy birthday Annie!

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

1 egg

125g golden caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

250g plain flour

125g butter, cubed

For the filling:

600g rhubarb stalks

100g caster sugar

Juice of 1 orange

For the streusel topping:

140g cold butter, cubed

140g plain flour
175g golden caster sugar

100g ground almonds

1tsp ground ginger

Flaked almonds

To make the pastry, put the egg and sugar into a bowl and whisk until the sugar has dissolved into the egg.

Then sift the flour into the bowl and mix well, making sure there are no pockets of flour, until it is sandy in texture.

Lastly, add the butter and cut in with a pastry cutter or butter knife, until it forms a sticky ball.

Turn the dough out onto a light floured surface and knead together for a few minutes to get rid of any lumps of butter, then wrap in clingfilm or greaseproof paper and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Pre-heat your oven to 180c and, while the pastry sits in the fridge, chop the rhubarb stalks into 2-3cm chunks and place in a roasting dish. Sprinkle over the sugar and orange juice, shuffling the rhubarb around to make sure it’s fully coated.

Cover the dish in tinfoil and roast for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes, take the foil off the dish and shuffle the rhubarb around again before putting back in the oven for a further 10 minutes.

Once cooled slightly, tip the contents of the dish into a sieve and drain the juices from the rhubarb. Pour the juices into a small jar or jug, and put to one side.

After the rhubarb has finished baking, turn your oven down to 160c.

Once the pastry has rested, roll it out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of a £1 coin. Line a tart dish (or round cake tin) with the pastry, making sure there are no gaps, and leaving a slight over hang around the edges.

Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper, and fill with baking beans. Blind bake for 20 minutes, then remove the baking beans and greaseproof paper and bake for a further 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and, while it’s still warm, trim the overhanging pastry around the edges.

While the pastry is baking, you can make the streusel topping. Tip all the ingredients, minus the flaked almonds, in a large mixing bowl and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it forms breadcrumbs

To assemble the tart, take the drained rhubarb and layer it evenly in the baked pastry case. Next, sprinkle over the streusel topping, followed by a handful of flaked almonds to finish.

Bake at 160c for 25 minutes until lightly browned on top.

Serve warm or cold, with the rhubarb juices as a sauce.