Strawberry Rhubarb Bakewell Tart

Happy Memorial Day a week late! For pretty much my entire life, this holiday has included the local Memorial Day parade which is nothing amazing, but it's tradition and I enjoy it. A lot of local businesses, schools, churches, organizations make up this event which is basically a huge ad. But I love it! And they throw candy!! :) After the parade, my family and I have been getting together with a group of good family friends for brunch which typically includes homemade waffles and whatever else people want to bring. This is usually a good time to try out a new recipe, see how it goes over with a crowd. This year I decided to go seasonal and picked a rhubarb recipe; a strawberry rhubarb Bakewell tart. A Bakewell tart is an English pastry made up of a shortcrust pastry shell with jam and frangipane. This one used strawberry jam and then topped everything with fresh rhubarb, the best combination!

I had such a fun time making this tart. I loved layering the beautiful pink rhubarb in a herringbone pattern on top of the delicious frangipane. There are quite a few different components to this dish. None of them are especially difficult, but it does take some time to put together. I found that the amount of frangipane that this recipe made was too much from my tart pan. When making this again, I would probably cut back to 3/4 of the frangipane recipe, or even 2/3, as my frangipane overflowed all over the place. Good thing I had a baking sheet underneath the tart pan! You can see the explosion in the pictures below! It still turned out well after a little bit of clean up, no problem, just a little messy!

The saddest part of this whole Memorial Day party post is the fact that I didn't even make it to any of the festivities. I drove to my parents house in the morning to watch the parade, but as soon as I got there I was contacted by the hospital. I was on call on Memorial Day and had to turn right around and go to the hospital where I spent the next 5 hours. Sigh. I missed the parade and brunch. My sister brought my tart to lunch so everyone else could enjoy, but I did not get to join in the party. I was super bummed. But such is life. At least I got to have a fun time putting it all together!

Strawberry Rhubarb Bakewell Tart
Adapted from Broma Bakery
Ingredients
For the Tart Shell (pate sucree)

• 6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 egg yolks, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

For the rhubarb

• 500 grams rhubarb, cut into short lengths (bias cut if using “herringbone” pattern on top)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 small orange, zested and 2 tablespoons juice
• 8 ounces Strawberry preserves

For the frangipane

• 12 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup (100 grams) ground almonds
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons all purpose flour

Directions
For the pate sucree: With paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until fluffy then beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, until fully incorporated into the mixture. Mix in the flour until it comes together as a ball of dough being careful not to overmix and then, by hand finish incorporating flour remaining at bottom of bowl.|

Form into a dis and wrap the pastry then chill for 30 minutes, but up to 1 day.

When ready to bake: Roll out, between cling wrap and fit into standard sized tart shell. Prick the dough (and rechill if it has warmed up too much) and then using baking beads or rice, blind bake at 350°F until the dough is golden brown (about 20 min).

Toss the rhubarb with sugar, orange juice, and orange zest. Let sit in fridge (up to overnight).
Spread strawberry jam over bottom of par cooked shell.

For the Frangipane: Beat together the sugar, butter, almonds, eggs, almond extract, baking powder, salt and flour until creamy. Spoon the mixture over the strawberry-rhubarb purée.

Arrange the rhubarb on top of the frangipane. If using the herringbone method, place rhubarb accordingly. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until golden and risen. Cool in the tin until warm. 

Rhubarb Almond Crumb Cake

I have a weakness for anything cake. Cake is one of my absolute favorite things. All flavors, all occasions, breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It amazes me how many people tell me they don't like cake (traditional frosted birthday/wedding cake that is.) When people tell me this, I just assume they never have had good cake. It's true, a bad cake is just bad. Unfortunately, the majority of the cake most people eat is just plain, bad cake. But moving on, I am in the other camp on cake. I love it. I am especially a sucker for a good breakfast cake. They are so simple, easy and delicious.

In my opinion, breakfast cake is the perfect way to start a day. I found this rhubarb almond cake online a few months ago and have been wanting to make it ever since. It was the picture that got me, a tall, golden cake with a crunchy, crumbly topping. I love anything with streusel. Sometimes it can be dangerous to fall in love with a picture of a recipe, when your doesn't quite live up to the expectations you had visually. That's what happened with this cake. It didn't come out as tall as I was hoping, and the streusel topping kind of sunk, and melted into the cake. I usually like it better when streusel is almost a separate layer, all alone of top.

So I was unhappy with the look of this cake when I took it out of the oven. But have no fear, all of that changed when I finally dug in. This cake was light, yet substantial, with a wonderful tartness from the rhubarb. I cut up my rhubarb pretty small because I don't like chunks, and it kind of disappeared into the cake leaving behind the perfect amount of sourness to blend with the sweetness of the cake. And the disappointing streusel actually turned into a crunchy and sweet topping that was a perfect complement to the soft cake beneath it. This recipe taught me to not judge a cake by its cover. A plain looking cake can mask an absolutely delicious treat. The more I ate this cake the more I fell in love with it. Good thing there is plenty of rhubarb in the freezer...

Rhubarb Almond Crumb Cake
Slightly adapted from Food 52
Ingredients 
THE CRUMB

• 2 tablespoons flour

• 2 tablespoons slivered almonds

• 2 tablespoons rolled oats

• 1/4 cup brown sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

THE CAKE

• Butter for greasing the pan

• 2 large eggs

• 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon almond extract

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

• 1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)

• 1 1/2 cup rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Directions
Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter the bottom and sides of an 8-inch, deep, fluted tart pan or an 8-inch round cake pan.

For the crumb, combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Using a fork or your fingers, gently work in the butter until pea-sized lumps are formed.

Combine the eggs, sugar, salt, and almond extract in a large bowl. Beat on high until the mixture triples in volume, about five minutes. Fold in the melted butter, flour, and rhubarb. Evenly spread the thick batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the top.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the topping is deeply golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the pan when it’s completely cool.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Strawberry season is basically over, this is always a sad realization to me since strawberries are my favorite fruit. I love buying a couple quarts at the farmers market and then stuffing my face full of sweet, juicy berries because we all know that freshly picked strawberries last about a day before they start going bad. To me this means I am required to eat as many as possible because I can't let any of these early summer jewels go to waste. This is a task I attack with pleasure.

This year I definitely did my share helping out the local strawberry farmers. This sometime required me to become creative with the baskets and baskets lining my counter. I had a wonderful time figuring out what to do with all of my strawberries, what a fantastic problem! When my neighbor called and told me she had rhubarb galore and I needed to come take some off of her hands I jumped at the opportunity. I had never made a strawberry rhubarb pie, but that was all about to change. Strawberry and rhubarb are my favorite combination. The juicy sweetness of the strawberries combined with the puckering tartness of the rhubarb is a match made in heaven. I'm already looking forward to next year!

While I've been making more pies and tarts recently, I still would definitely call myself an amateur. I'm getting better, but I still have things I need to work on. Regardless, this pie turned out absolutely delicious, even if it lacks a little in the looks department. I like to think of it as rustic. In the end it really doesn't matter what the pie looks like, the most important thing is what it tastes like, and this one did not disappoint.

Note: This is a rough estimate of my strawberry rhubarb pie recipe. It was delicious, but it could definitely have used more filling, both strawberries and rhubarb. Feel free to play around with the quantities, increasing the filling until you are satisfied with it.

For the topping: this time around I didn't melt the butter, but for future use I probably would. I think you get bigger chunks of streusel then. Also, if you are a big streusel fan (like me) you'll want to increase the amount of streusel. Try doubling it perhaps!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients

Pie

• 1/2 recipe Pate Brisee (or your favorite pie dough)
• 1 3/4 cup chopped rhubarb
• 4 cups sliced strawberries
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons Yukon Jack Liquor (or whatever you happen to have in your cupboard, this was what was in mine!)

Topping

• 3 tablespoons room temperature butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• pinch salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make the filling: Mix together rhubarb, strawberries, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, and liquor. Set aside.

Make the crust: Roll out pate brisee to a 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Fit dough into a 9-inch pie plate. Place in refrigerator or freezer for 15-30 minutes, until well chilled. 

Drain excess juice from the rhubarb/berry mixture. Pour filling into chilled pie crust. Bake pie for 45-55 minutes, until crust is well browned. Remove from oven and cool. Enjoy with vanilla ice cream or lightly whipped cream.