Technically, I was supposed to make one large tart and that probably would have taken less time but I can't seem to get rid of big ole' desserts. Mini ones are so much easier to give away.
Component #1: Pâte Sucreé
I've made this a few times before - it's a sweet pie crust, kind of like a sugar cookie.
The dough gets rolled out and (for mini tarts) cut into squares and placed into my brownie pan. This pan is awfully handy; big shout out to my sister for randomly giving it to me for Christmas one year.
The dough gets covered with parchment, weighted down and baked until golden.
Component #2 - Brown Butter Filling
This is a yummy combination of almond flour, regular flour, eggs, sugar, milk, cream and browned butter.
I know we've talked about browned butter here before but I can't seem to remember when or what the recipe was. To make brown butter you melt butter and boil it until it browns. Tricky, huh? It totally changes the flavor of the butter giving it a nutty flavor. It's much more interesting than regular butter which we already know is delicious, so this must be doubly good.
I was surprised by how thin the consistency of the filling was when it was done. I expected something more fluffy like almond cream but this was about as thin as pancake batter.
Luckily since it has eggs in it it puffs and thickens up as it bakes.
Component #3 - Cured Rhubarb
I learned that you should peel rhubarb. Apparently everyone knows this except me, even CA. When I asked him he said, "of course, it's tough and stringy on the outside". It seems I've been making tough and stringy strawberry rhubarb pie for years because I never peeled it.
Anyway, the rhubarb gets peeled and soaked in sugar and grenadine for 24 hours to "cure". I don't know what that means but it did release a ton of water; plus it sweetened up a bit (just a tiny bit, it's still super tart).
This stuff is so yummy. I love streusel - I strongly prefer pies with streusel topping to those with crust on top. It's just better.
This one is a combination of flour, almond flour, sugar and butter. It's awfully tasty and I ate quite a bit of it all by its lonesome. The streusel also gets baked so it develops a lovely little suntan.
The streusel is supposed to be sprinkled on top of the tart after it's cooked. I neglected to read that and sprinkled it on the raw tart. Honestly, I think it was fine - in fact I'm afraid it might have just fallen right off I put it on after I baked it. Therefore, my way is better and I definitely did it on purpose.
These get layered in the following order; 1, 2, 3, 2, 4. That is, crust, filling, rhubarb, more filling and then streusel.
CA is a big fan which did not surprise me. He loves strawberry rhubarb pie and doesn't like things too sweet. These are pretty darn tart tarts , although "well balanced" (his words) so he was very pleased.
I liked them. However, I have the same problem with these that I have with fruit pies, cobblers, crisps and all other desserts that have baked fruit in them. I don't want to eat the fruit. I just want to eat the crust and topping that the fruit touched. You've got to have the fruit flavor but I don't actually want the fruit. In college, our cafeteria always had cobbler on the buffet and I used to scrape the crust off the top and put that in my bowl. I didn't want or need the fruit. I've met people who just like the fruit so hopefully those people went to my school and were happy to be relieved of the crust. That was a very long explanation to tell you that I love the flavor of this tart and if I picked out the actual rhubarb it would be just perfect.
Enjoy!
Julie
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