RHUBARB & BLOOD ORANGE FRANGIPANE TART

Rhubarb is seasonal and abundant. Here we've coupled it with the last of the Spanish blood oranges, but any orange will do!

Ingredients:

For the sweetcrust
75g icing sugar
125g butter
1 medium egg
250g plain flour

For the filling
4-5 sticks of rhubarb
250g sugar
250g water
1 orange (or blood orange)

For the frangipane
150g caster sugar
150g butter
3 medium eggs
150g ground almonds
30g plain flour

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Method:
This recipe involves making 3 elements - the sweetcrust, the filling and the frangipane - separately, and assembling together at the end.

For the sweetcrust:

• Beat 75g sifted icing sugar together with half a pack (125g) of softened butter.
• Beat in 1 medium egg - about 50-55g worth. If you only have large eggs, remove a little of the white.
• Now fold in 250g of plain flour, using your hands when it becomes easier and handling as lightly as possible.
• Form into a dough, wrap and rest in fridge for 30 min before rolling and lining a well-greased flan tin. Reserve scraps for patching.
• Prick the base all over and chill again before baking blind at 180C. Bake it blind, so you have a cooled, baked case to fill.

For the filling:

• Cut 4-5 sticks of rhubarb into 5cm chunks and cook in a syrup of 250g sugar in 250g water for about 5 mins.
• Allow to cool in syrup, then remove and reserve syrup.
• Now slice an orange into thinnish slices (about the thickness of a pound coin) and cook in the reserved rhubarb syrup until tender. Reserve a few of the orange pieces and some of the rhubarb pieces to decorate the top of your tart!
• Place the rest of the cooked rhubarb in with the leftover oranges in syrup and cook down until you have a jammy compote. Leave to cool. This will be used to cover the base of your tart.

For the frangipane:

• Now make your frangipane. I make mine with ground almonds, but feel free to sub with other nut flour, such as hazelnut. 
• Beat 150g softened butter (preferably unsalted) together with 150g caster sugar.
• Mix in 3 medium eggs (about 150g, if you only have large eggs to hand).
• Stir in 150g ground almonds and about 30g plain flour. Essentially, this is a classic sponge mixture with almond flour instead of regular flour.

Now you're ready to assemble! 

• Cover the base of your cooled baked tart shell with the rhubarb and orange compote, then top with the frangipane.
• Take your reserved few pieces of cooked rhubarb and cut into thin strips, ready to decorate the top of the frangipane with the cooked orange slices.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.