More dessert - sorry, Dad

The other day I found a few sad stalks of rhubarb at the farmer's market. Even though they looked a little pathetic, I took them home and vowed to bake something. I've already made strawberry-rhubarb crumble and pie and I decided I needed to do something a little different. Since I'm feeling good about mastering a simple pie crust, I figured I should try something new. While flipping through Martha's cookbook (she scares me, but she certainly knows what she's doing), I settled on pate sucree - a sweet crumbly tart dough. I made it in the food processor super quickly. It was a snap.

Martha's pate sucree

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbs sugar
1 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup ice water

Put the flour and sugar in a food processor and process for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter and process for about ten seconds, or until the mixture resembles "coarse meal." In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks and water together. Add in a steady stream through the feed tube with the machine running, and process until the dough comes together.


It's a snap. Seriously. Divide it in half, press into disks and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for at least an hour.


I bought a few lemons the other day (you always need lemons). I was worried that I didn't have much rhubarb to make a filling on its own, so I figured I'd make some lemon curd to sass things up a bit.


Lemon Curd - adapted from Alice Waters

2 lemons
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 Tb milk
1/6 cup sugar
pinch of salt
3 Tbs butter, cut into pieces

Zest one lemon and juice both of them. Set the juice/zest aside. Mix together the egg, egg yolk, sugar, milk and salt. Add the lemon juice and zest and mix. Add the butter.


Cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly until it is thick enough to coat a spoon. Don't bring the heat up too high or the eggs will curdle - like scrambled eggs (full disclosure - mine curdled a little. Whoops. It's still good).


I poured it into a bowl so that the hot pot wouldn't keep it cooking.


Pretty! I also cut up the rhubarb and added a little bit of lemon juice, sugar and ground ginger to the bowl.


I rolled out my pate sucree and pushed into a tart pan. I baked it at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.


I poured the lemon curd in....


And topped it with the rhubarb.


Then I baked the whole thing for another 15 minutes or so at 375 degrees (you don't want to under cook rhubarb - it's poisonous when it's raw).


It turned out really nicely. It's a little tart and the textures are really neat - the crumbly shell, the creamy custard and the fruit just melts in your mouth. I love playing around in the kitchen.