poached rhubarb hazelnut tart

Our first fresh rhubarb of the season–how exciting! I may turn this blog into an ode to rhubarb…or at least that’s what I feel like doing at the moment.

Rhubarb crumble is one of the few desserts my mom makes and so I can’t help but be very fond of it in a sort of baked grainy combination, which prompted this tart.

Actually my mom always used to make rhubarb pies…which then turned into crumbles since they were, understandably, so much quicker! I like them both so I wouldn’t particularly complain.

I thought the tart was quite nice; the hazelnut cream on the bottom is very rich and very sweet but the poached rhubarb retains its sharp acidity. I guess I only wish I had more rhubarb now! I think I saw some rhubarb and custard tarts with rhubarb on the bottom–a layer of thick rhubarb compote or jam would be nice underneath the hazelnut cream (and perhaps the tart shell could be blind baked before hand).

But that being said, I also love the hazelnut cream! This might be a frangipane, but I’m not certain–I’ve read elsewhere that to be a frangipane, an almond cream has to be beaten with equal quantities of pastry cream? Well, everything confuses me so this isn’t anything new.

The poached rhubarb took me a couple tries–the first batch turned into a saucepan of strings and pulp and mush–but in the end worked out quite nicely. When you eat the tart, the rhubarb can be cut easily with the side of a fork; it’s not at all stringy but very soft and smooth.

I like poaching the rhubarb because it cooks before you bake it, and I like to think it releases less water when it actually bakes…though I’m not sure that’s actually true? However the cream was certainly a bit more soggy around the rhubarb and probably needed a bit more time.

But more than that, I don’t think I cooked mine enough as the bottom crust was still soggy. The taste of the spelt flour was heightened a bit more due to the rawness and so wasn’t the most pleasant. I would have preferred to use a chestnut flour crust instead.

And, of course, happy Fiesta Friday! Hosted by the amazing Angie, the Novice Gardener and cohosted by two brilliant bloggers, Dini of Giramuk’s Kitchen and Mollie, The Frugal Hausfrau. You can tell my blog has started to revolve around Fiesta Friday–I’ve been a bit on the busy side lately and so if I’m only going to post once a week, it’s definitely going to be on a Friday…when else?

If you’ve somehow found yourself on this old recipe page, there is an updated and similar rhubarb tart recipe here!