Ingredients

(Makes 8 small tarts or 1 large tart/pie)

Pastry

1 cup flour

75g cold butter, diced

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 egg yolk

A pinch of salt

1 Tbsp water

Rhubarb Mixture

4 cups rhubarb, sliced 1cm thick

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup cornflour

1/4 cup caster sugar

Crumble Topping

1/2 cup oats

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp butter

Prep It

Start with the pastry. Place flour in a large bowl and add butter. Use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour, until you end up with a sand like texture. Stir through icing sugar, egg yolk and salt, until well combined. Add water and mix, until the dough just comes together. You want to avoid kneading the dough and instead kind of push it together. Shape as best you can into a round 2cm thick disk, wrap and put it in the fridge to rest for about 1 hour.

Roll It

Once your dough has properly chilled its time to roll it out. Get your pastry out and leave at room temp to soften a little for about 10 minutes. Get your mini tart tins or large or pie dish out. Give them a light spray with oil and set aside for later. Get your rolling pin out (or whine bottle), a little flour and a cutter to cut your mini tart tin circles out. You just need something round that’s about 1cm bigger than your tart tins. If you have cutters great! I used a nutri bullet cup but you can also just cut circles with a small knife.

Dust your bench with a little flour and pop your pastry in the middle. Roll out thinly, about a 1/2 cm thick and then cut out your circles. Place in your mini tart tins and press the pastry into the edges. If the pastry comes up the sides that’s ok, it will shrink a bit when cooking anyway. If your making a big one you can just transfer the whole pastry to the tart tin and then trim the edges so they are nice and tasty. Which ever way you have gone, prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork, place the minis or large on a tray and pop it in the fridge to chill for about an hour, until very firm.

Cook It

While your pastry chills, cook the rhubarb filling. Slice the rhubarb and combine in a medium pot with vanilla and first measure of sugar. Place on medium heat and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring often, until soft. Meanwhile, combine second sugar measure and cornflour in a small bowl. When rhubarb has been cooking for 8-10 minutes and is soft, add cornflour sugar mixture and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously until very thick. Set aside for later.

Make the crumble topping. Combine all the crumble topping ingredients (except walnuts) together in a medium bowl and rub the butter into the mixture until you end up with pea size flakes. Stir through walnuts and set aside.

Its time to blind bake your tart shells. Preheat oven to 190°C.

Place tarts on an oven tray and set aside. Cut pieces of baking paper big enough to fit inside your tart shells so that the paper comes up the sides a couple of cm. Pop the paper on the pastry and then pour your baking beans (or dried chickpeas as mentioned above) in.

Transfer to the middle shelf in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, until the pastry on the sides of the tarts are cooked but not browned. Remove from oven, carefully lift out paper and beans and return tart shells to oven to cook for a further 5 minutes, until pastry is cooked.

Reduce oven temp to 170°C. Divide rhubarb filling between tarts and sprinkle over crumble topping. Return tarts to oven to cook for about 25 minutes, until crumble is golden brown and rhubarb bubbles out the sides.

Cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before removing form tart tins.

Dust with icing sugar and serve with ice cream, cream, yoghurt, mascarpone whatever you like! The worlds your oyster!

Eat It