One of my best friends, fourth sister really, was visiting from California for a long weekend. She requested I bake a sweet treat. Normally this is not a problem for me. I have endless options when it comes to baking sweet treats. But, she is gluten free. And if you haven’t tried gluten-free baking, let me tell you it is an art in itself. You cannot take any good old recipe, substitute the all-purpose flour for gluten-free flour and think you are going to retrieve a master piece from the oven. It just doesn’t work that way. You really have to spend time in the kitchen experimenting with gluten-free flour combinations or just refer to the experts. And even then, I still think it’s a challenge.
Since time was limited I decided to refer to an expert gluten free baker for a rhubarb cake recipe. Let me just tell you that the entire cake stuck to the bottom of the pan. Feeling defeated but determined, I decided it was nothing raspberries and powdered sugar could not fix. It tasted divine and looked homemade! But for this post, I am sticking to what I know and that’s gluten. I have made this pate sucree dough many times. It’s tried and true. You can find the recipe here posted under the lemony tartlets.
And since rhubarb is in full bounty and I love it so much, I decided to make this a 2 in 1 recipe. I am giving you recipes for Rhubarb-Rose Lemonade and a Rhubarb Curd Tart. You use the rhubarb simple syrup for the lemonade and the strained rhubarb for the curd. It’s perfect really!
Rhubarb-Rose Lemonade
8 rhubarb stalks
1 ½ c. sugar
½ tsp. rose water
3 lemons
1 sparkling water
Remove leaves from rhubarb. Wash and cut into 1 inch pieces. In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, bring 3 cups of water, rhubarb, sugar and rose water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer stirring occasionally until sugar has dissolved. Approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow rhubarb to seep for approx 2 hours. Strain before serving.
In a 1 gallon glass jar, zest 2 lemons and juice 3. Add the rhubarb simple syrup and sparkling water and then fill remaining jar with tap water. Refrigerate until chilled. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Rhubarb Curd Tart
Strained rhubarb from above simple syrup
4 egg yolks
1 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. coconut milk
Preheat oven to 350. Follow pate sucree recipe here. Bake crust for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.
Puree rhubarb. I used a food processor. In a glass bowl, whisk together rhubarb puree and egg yolks. Place over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until thickened. About 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add butter and coconut milk. Stir until incorporated.
Spread rhubarb curd into 4″x14″ tart shell. Bake for another 15-20 minutes until curd is set in the middle.
Swiss Meringue / from SF Baking Institute
166 g of sugar
83 g of egg whites
Combine the egg white and sugar in a mixing bowl. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and mix until egg whites and sugar reach 120F. Transfer to a mixer and whip on medium high until full volume and the meringue has cooled to room temperature.
Apply meringue to cooled tart and toast carefully with a blowtorch.
