Our household eats foods seasonally, and the winter diet of root vegetables gets quite long. So I am quite excited in the spring to spot clumps of fresh chives, purple asparagus tips and the dark green leaves of rhubarb starting to unfold. Something new to cook!
Botanically speaking, rhubarb is classified as a vegetable, although many recipes in which we Americans prepare rhubarb are more like a fruit. Regardless of its category, our family loves the mouth-puckering, tart flavor of the thick, celery-like stalks of rhubarb. Ruby juice and tangy rhubarb sauce, strawberry rhubarb pie, rhubarb maple muffins, rhubarb glazed meat, and rhubarb coffee cakes are now on the menu.
The recipe for Rhubarb Spring Tart really elevates this member of the buckwheat family to star status. It’s the type of dessert that would be served in a fancy restaurant. The bottom layer is a rich, buttery, delicate orange shortbread crust topped with pretty pink slices of sweet and tart rhubarb. Next a layer of velvety, soft cheesecake and the final tart layer is tangy, with a hint of orange.
You’ll need about a pound of rhubarb stalks to prepare this recipe, although I’ve baked the tart with a combination of rhubarb and apples before. Don’t let the number of steps deter you. Once the unbaked layers are mixed, the tart is assembled easily.
To successfully remove the whole tart from the pan for serving on a pretty platter, it’s best to use a spring form pan and chill the confection for several hours until it sets up completely. The textures and flavors are best when this luscious dessert is around cellar temperature, so remove from the refrigerator and slice an hour or so before serving.
Once you’ve tried Spring Rhubarb Tart it just might become your favorite.
Rhubarb Spring Tart
Ingredients
Crust ingredients:
- ½ cup butter
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1¼ cup flour
Rhubarb filling ingredients:
- 1 pound rhubarb sliced into ½ inch chunks
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup flour
Soft cheese filling ingredients:
- 8 ounces soft cheese cream cheese, goat cheese, soft cow cheese
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg
Topping ingredients:
- 2/3 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
Instructions
- Assemble ingredients and tools. Butter a 9-inch spring form pan* Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Add the butter, 1-tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon orange zest and 1 ¼ cup flour to the bowl of a food processor or mixer. Process until the mixture becomes a ball of dough.
- Press the dough evenly onto the bottom and the sides of the prepared pan.
- Add the sliced rhubarb, ½ cup sugar, and ¼ cup flour to a large bowl and mix well.
- Spoon the rhubarb filling mixture over the prepared crust in the pan.
- Bake tart at 425 degrees for 10 minutes.
- While the crust is baking, prepare the soft cheese filling. Add the soft cheese, sugar and egg to the unwashed bowl of your food processor or mixer, and blend.
- Remove the crust from the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
- Spread the soft cheese filling over the crust.
- Return the tart to the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 30 – 35 minutes.
- While the tart is baking, prepare the topping. Whisk the sour cream, 1-tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon orange zest together in a small bowl.
- Spread the topping evenly over the tart once removed from the oven.
- Chill the tart for several hours before serving. Makes 12 servings.