Rhubarb-Custard Tart

Another rhubarb tart for teatime to the delight of my two boys!  You may use instant shortcrust pastry if you wish, but making your very own is not that difficult.  As for the custard filling, I do not use any instant pudding powder.  Just whisk eggs, milk, sugar, cornflour & a little vanilla essence together, then cook slowly over medium heat until thick and creamy.  Lastly, sugared rhubarb slices are arranged on top before baking.  Once done, a nice looking tart with an awesome taste will be staring back at you!

Shortcrust Pastry Ingredients:
200 g plain flour
100 sugar
100 cold butter
1 medium-size egg

Filling Ingredients:
400 g fresh milk
3 medium-size eggs
80 g fine sugar
30 g cornflour
1 tsp vanilla essence

500 g rhubarb, to be washed, cleaned, dried and diagonally sliced into 1/2 cm lengths
40 g fine sugar

Method:
Grease a 28 cm diameter tart form with butter and set aside.  In a mixing bowl, add all shortcrust pastry ingredients and form into a pliable dough.  Roll dough between two plastic sheets to a diameter which is bigger than your tart form.  Remove a plastic sheet and position bare dough side down onto tart tin.

Trim excess dough and leave tart form in fridge for 30 minutes.

Remove tart tin from fridge, place a baking baking paper and dried beans (I use chickpeas) onto pastry shell.  Bake in a preheated fan oven at a temperature of 160° C for about 20 minutes.  Once done, remove from oven and leave to cool down completely.

In a medium-size bowl, mix rhubarb slices and sugar together.  Leave aside for 15 minutes.  Then, add rhubarb sliced to a sieve over a bowl.  We will need the saved juice for making the glaze later on.

In a medium-size saucepan, add milk, cornflour, eggs and vanilla essence.  Whisk mixture together and cook over medium heat, stirring all the time until thick and creamy.  Transfer to a plastic bowl and cover with cling film.  Leave aside to cool down completely.

Add custard to pastry shell and spread evenly.  Arrange rhubarb slices as shown in the following pictures:

Bake in a preheated fan oven at a temperature of 180° C for about 20 minutes.  In the meantime, cook saved rhubarb juice in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until it reaches a syrup-like consistency.

Once pastry shell is done, remove from oven and by using a small pastry brush, brush the rhubarb slices with rhubarb glaze.

Leave tart to cool down completely before serving.

Happy Baking!