Rhubarb Bakewell Tarts
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
I’ll get the mandatory text out of the way first this time: The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800′s in England.
I’ve posted a chocolate bakewell tart once before on this site, but I have never had the “regular” version. A traditional bakewell tart contains a shortcrust pastry, filled with some kind of fruit, and topped with frangipane. The frangipane filling is light and spongy, flavored mostly from the almonds. For the Daring Bakers challenge, we had to include the shortcrust pastry and frangipane but could use whatever fruit filling we wanted.
I decided to make a rhubarb compote to fill my tarts. We were watering some plants for some friends that are out of town and noticed that they had a meyer lemon tree. Since there happened to be a ripe one, and I already knew I liked the combination of Meyer lemon and rhubarb, I brought it home and added its juice and zest to the rhubarb. I also ended up flavoring the rhubarb with lavender by adding a few stems while it stewed.












