
These lightly Spiced Rhubarb Meringue Tarts are a fun take on the classic lemon meringue! There bursting with different flavours and textures, the beautiful fresh spring rhubarb is encased in a buttery pastry shell and topped with pillows of soft meringue. Some may say the perfect finish to any meal and I would wholeheartedly agree!
Makes 4 individual tarts
Ingredients
Sweet pastry
- 125g butter
- 125g caster sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 250g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Spiced Rhubarb compote
- 6 rhubarb stalks
- 150ml water
- 25g caster sugar
- 2 cardamom seeds (crushed)
- 1 vanilla pod
Meringue
- 200g egg white
- 200g caster sugar
- 200g icing sugar
- 20g cornflour
Method
Sweet pastry
- Cream the butter and sugar together until pale in colour.
- Add the egg and vanilla, combine.
- Finally, add the flour. Do not over mix at this stage.
- Turn the mix out onto a floured surface, gently knead to form a ball.
- Wrap in cling and chill for a minimum of 30 minutes.
- When rested, return to the floured surface and roll out.
- Grease and flour your 4 individual baking tart moulds and carefully cover with the rolled out pastry.
- Check that there are no cracks or holes and trim off the excess pastry. Chill for 25 minutes.
- Line the tart shell’s with parchment and fill with baking beans and bind bake in a pre-heated oven at 165ºC for 8-10 minutes, remove the baking beans and return the tart to the oven for a further 4-5 minutes to finish baking or until golden brown.
- Set aside to cool
* Note: Any extra raw pastry can be wrapped and frozen until needed again
Spiced Rhubarb compote
- Wash and cut the stalks into bite sized pieces.
- Place these in a pot with the sugar, water, cardamom and the split and scraped vanilla pod and cook over a gentle heat until the pieces soften but don’t loose there shape.
- Remove from the pot and cool.
Meringue
- The meringue is very simple, in a clean, dry bowl whisk the whites until double in size and leave a track of the whisk, gradually add the caster sugar and continue to mix on high speed until thick.
- Finally add the icing sugar and corn flour, mix again on high speed and the end result will be an extremely thick and glossy meringue.
Assembly
- Spoon the rhubarb compote into the pre baked tart shells.
- You can either pipe on the meringue or spoon it on for a messier “agricultural” look.
- Place in a preheated oven set at 200ºC for a few minutes until the tips of the meringue turn a golden brown colour.
- Serve & most importantly enjoy!