Chef Thomas
Bakewell Tart
A proper Bakewell tart with buttery shortcrust, a thick layer of raspberry jam, and almond frangipane baked golden under a scattering of flaked almonds. No icing. No nonsense.
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Forced Rhubarb Tart
Created by Chef Thomas
Forced pink rhubarb laid into a buttery shortcrust and baked until the juices turn syrupy and the kitchen smells of January doing its best to feel like spring.
Pastries & Cookies
British
Weeknight
Comfort Food
30 min
Active Time
45 min cook•PT1H15M plus chilling total
Yield8 servings
It's January. The garden is doing nothing. The market has root vegetables and a great deal of cabbage, and you've eaten enough soup to last you. Then, on a stall near the back, a bundle of forced rhubarb appears. Long pink stalks the colour of a winter sunrise, grown by candlelight in dark sheds in the Yorkshire Triangle, and it feels like someone has slipped you a secret.
This is the first proper tart of the year. Not the rhubarb you'll get in April, which is greener and tougher and wants stewing into submission. Forced rhubarb is something else entirely. Tender enough to soften in twenty minutes, sharp enough to need sugar but not too much, pink enough to make the pastry case look like it's holding a stained glass window. The Yorkshire growers have been doing this since Victorian times and you can taste the patience in it.
A recipe is a conversation, not a contract. Use whatever good shortcrust you trust, and if you have a favourite ratio for pastry, use that instead. The rhubarb is the point. Vanilla and orange zest sit alongside it the way good company sits alongside someone you love: present, but not crowding the room.
Serve it warm, with cold double cream poured straight from the jug, or with thick Greek yoghurt if you want the sharpness to ring louder. I wrote it down in the notebook the first time I made one this winter: rhubarb, January, the kitchen smelling of sugar and orange peel, the rain coming down sideways outside. Right food, right evening.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
plain flour
Quantity
200g
cold unsalted butter
Quantity
100g
cubed
icing sugar
Quantity
50g
large egg yolk
Quantity
1
cold water
Quantity
2-3 tablespoons
fine sea salt
Quantity
pinch
forced pink rhubarb
Quantity
600g
Yorkshire Triangle if you can get it
golden caster sugar
Quantity
100g, plus extra for the top
vanilla pod
Quantity
1
split, seeds scraped
unwaxed orange
Quantity
zest of 1
cornflour
Quantity
1 tablespoon
double cream or thick yoghurt (optional)
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| plain flour | 200g |
| cold unsalted buttercubed | 100g |
| icing sugar | 50g |
| large egg yolk | 1 |
| cold water | 2-3 tablespoons |
| fine sea salt | pinch |
| forced pink rhubarbYorkshire Triangle if you can get it | 600g |
| golden caster sugar | 100g, plus extra for the top |
| vanilla podsplit, seeds scraped | 1 |
| unwaxed orange | zest of 1 |
| cornflour | 1 tablespoon |
| double cream or thick yoghurt (optional) | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •23cm loose-bottomed tart tin
- •Rolling pin
- •Baking parchment and baking beans (or dried pulses)
- •Mixing bowls
Instructions
- 1
Make the pastry
Tip the flour, icing sugar and salt into a bowl. Add the cold butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like rough sand with a few larger flecks of butter still showing. Don't overdo it. Those flecks are what make the pastry shatter properly when baked. Stir in the egg yolk and just enough cold water to bring it together into a rough ball. Flatten into a disc, wrap, and rest in the fridge for at least half an hour.
Cold hands are better than warm ones for pastry. Run your wrists under the cold tap before you start if you tend to run hot. - 2
Prepare the rhubarb
Trim the rhubarb and wipe the stalks with a damp cloth. Forced rhubarb doesn't need peeling. Cut into batons roughly the length of your little finger, on a slight diagonal so they sit prettily in the tart. Toss them in a wide bowl with the caster sugar, vanilla seeds, orange zest and cornflour. Leave them to sit for ten minutes. The sugar will start to draw out the juices and the colour will deepen from pale pink to something altogether more serious.
- 3
Roll and line the tin
Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan. Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to about the thickness of a pound coin. Lift it carefully into a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin, pressing it gently into the corners. Trim the edges, leaving a small overhang in case of shrinkage. Prick the base all over with a fork.
- 4
Blind bake
Line the pastry case with a sheet of baking parchment and fill with baking beans or dried pulses. Bake for fifteen minutes, then lift out the parchment and beans and return the case to the oven for another five minutes. The pastry should look pale gold and dry to the touch, no longer raw underneath. This is the step most people skip and most people regret. A soggy bottom is not a tradition we need to preserve.
Keep a jar of dried chickpeas just for blind baking. They last forever and they don't roll off the spoon the way ceramic beans do. - 5
Arrange the rhubarb
Lay the rhubarb batons into the warm pastry case in whatever pattern pleases you. Tight rows work. So does a loose, scattered look. Pour any juices that have collected in the bowl over the top. Scatter a little extra caster sugar across the surface. The rhubarb should sit snugly but not be crammed in.
- 6
Bake until tender
Slide the tart back into the oven and bake for twenty-five to thirty minutes. You're looking for rhubarb that has softened and turned glossy, with the juices bubbling at the edges and reducing to a thick syrup. The pastry should be deep gold. Trust your nose. When the kitchen starts to smell of warm sugar and something faintly floral, you're nearly there. Let the tart cool in the tin for at least twenty minutes before lifting it out. Warm, not hot, is when it tastes best.
Chef Tips
- •Forced rhubarb is in season from January to about March. The Yorkshire Triangle stuff (Wakefield, Morley, Rothwell) is the gold standard, grown in dark sheds and harvested by candlelight. If you see it, buy more than you need. The season is short and you'll regret missing it.
- •Don't be tempted to peel forced rhubarb. The skin is thin and tender and that pink colour is the whole reason you're here. Just wipe the stalks clean with a damp cloth and trim the ends.
- •If your rhubarb leaches a lot of juice during baking and the tart looks wet, that's fine. The cornflour will thicken it as it cools. Resist the urge to pour off the syrup. It's the best bit, and you'll want it pooling around each slice.
- •Cream, not ice cream. Cold double cream poured from a jug, the way it should be. The contrast between warm sharp fruit and cold thick cream is most of what makes this tart worth making.
Advance Preparation
- •The pastry can be made up to two days ahead and kept wrapped in the fridge, or frozen for up to a month. Let it come back to a workable temperature before rolling.
- •The blind-baked pastry case can be made the morning of and left at room temperature until you're ready to fill it.
- •The tart is best eaten on the day it's baked, while the pastry is still crisp. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for a day, but the base will soften. A quick reheat in a low oven brings some of the crispness back.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 130g)
Calories
280 calories
Total Fat
11 g
Saturated Fat
7 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
3 g
Cholesterol
50 mg
Sodium
25 mg
Total Carbohydrates
42 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
20 g
Protein
4 g
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