Still a little bit behind here everyone, but I’m on a mission to get caught up this week so I can get back to posting in real-time! Summer salads! Graham cracker disasters! Roasted strawberries! We’ll get there friends, I promise.

This tart was Father’s day dessert, as we’ve already established Mom and Dad love rhubarb. I didn’t give this post a “+ Father’s Day Dinner” title, because though it was delicious, I didn’t make anything new. In the great tradition of dads everywhere, mine wanted steak, and I made some sweet potato wedges and stuffed mushrooms to go along with it. Since I don’t have a barbecue, Dad actually grilled the steaks himself, tented them with foil, and then drove over.

On to dessert. Sometimes I’m a bit leery of food blogs where it seems that every other post is saying “This is the best _____ EVER!”. And I can understand where they’re coming from. When your hobby is cooking and baking new things, you’re constantly finding new recipes you love, and it’s hard not to claim it’s the best ______ you’ve ever had. I try to save my effusiveness for instances where I really, truly, absolutely love something, and this is one of those times. This tart is phenomenal, and I will tell you why:

1. The crust. You don’t need to roll it out!!! If you’ve every tried to roll-out pastry in the summer, you can feel me on this one. This crust is mixed in the food processor, dumped into the tart pan and pressed out. No muss, no fuss. Even better? It tastes like a big crunchy shortbread cookie.

2. The fruit. Sure I used strawberry rhubarb here, both from the farmer’s market down the street from my house, but you can really use anything. I can’t wait to do a peach/blueberry version.

3. The crumble. The original recipe calls for a crumble topping with almonds and cinnamon, but this reminds me too much of fall. Oat-y, cinnamon-y toppings are for apple crisp in my opinion. So I used a crumble topping from Smitten Kitchen, but I browned the butter first. It adds a little bit of a nutty flavour to the crumble, and the raw sugar adds a little bit of unexpected crunch.

Mom and Dad said this is the best dessert I have ever made.

 Strawberry Rhubarb Tart with Brown Butter Crumble

Source: What’s On My Plate, with a Smitten Kitchen inspired topping

Ingredients

Crust

1 1/2 cups flour

3 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, very cold and cut into cubes

1 large egg yolk

3-4 tbsp whipping cream

Topping

1 1/3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp raw sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick butter)

Filling

2 1/2 cups sliced rhubarb

2 1/2 cups sliced strawberries

3/4 cup sugar

juice of 1 lemon

3-4 tbsp cornstarch

pinch of salt

Directions

1. For the crust, add the flour, sugar and salt to the food processor (or a big bowl) and pulse (or stir) until combined. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is no bigger than peas (or use a pastry cutter or two knives and do the same thing). Add the egg yolk and 3 tbsp of cream and mix until the dough comes together, adding another tablespoon of cream if you need to. Bring dough together into a ball, and then pat it into a 10″ tart pan with a removeable bottom (mine was 9″, no big deal). The crust should be about 1/4″ thick. Pierce crust everywhere with a fork, and let chill for 2 hours.
2. For the topping, first brown your butter. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. It will melt, then foam, then start to turn golden and smell delicious. Don’t leave it, because it can burn easily once it starts to turn brown. Remove from heat and stir in the rest of the crumble ingredients until small and large clumps form. Stick it in the fridge while your crust chills.
3. When two hours are almost up, heat the oven to 375. Line a cookie sheet with tin foil and place the tart on top (in case it bubbles over later, this saves the bottom of your oven). Bake the crust for 20 minutes, until it’s starting to get a nice golden brown.
4. While the crust is baking, get your fruit ready and toss everything together in a big bowl until well blended. When the crust is done, pour the fruit into it piling everything up a bit in the middle (there will be lots of fruit, but it’ll cook down a bit). Turn the oven down to 350.
5. Take your crumble out of the fridge and sprinkle it evenly overtop of the fruit.
6. Bake for about an hour until your kitchen smells like heaven.