White chocolate tart with rhubarb and mini eggs

 

I saw a recipe for white chocolate pots with rhubarb in the Sainsbury’s magazine (in my opinion, the best of the supermarket magazines) and used it as the basis for this tart.  I added a biscuit case and simplified the rhubarb element and came up with a rather smart dessert.  The ring of rhubarb makes it look like the tart is wearing a flamboyant feather boa!

I think the flavours would work well for an Easter dessert so decided to decorate it with an Easter theme using my Lakeland egg moulds for which I have provided a link but am sad to see they are a discontinued item.  What a shame.  Oh well.

The filling for the tart is sweet so I decided to leave the rhubarb on the tart side for contrast.  The filling and rhubarb are both soft so the biscuit base and the chocolate eggs add some welcome texture.

This is a pleasing tart which would work well as dessert for an Easter dinner.  I chose to serve it with a cup of tea as a mid-afternoon treat but that’s always my preference for cakes and bakes!  I think next time I might add another leaf of gelatine to get a cleaner slice.  It would be lovely without any fruit topping...

...but I can’t resist rhubarb:

I could probably have made it look neater by cooking the rhubarb less – when you’re baking things and blogging you often have a trade off between making it look nice for the photo/presentation and making it how you like it.  Here, I went for how I like it and it does look a bit untidy.  Never mind, thankfully I don’t come from a family who look at food for too long!

Ingredients

For the base:

300g hobnob biscuits – use digestives if you prefer
60g unsalted butter

For the filling:

150ml milk
600ml double cream
75g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out
3 leaves of gelatine – I used 3 but would advise using 4
100g white chocolate

For the rhubarb:

500g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into short pieces (about 2cm)
30g caster sugar, add more to taste
2 tablespoons water
Optional: 1 teaspoon grenadine

For the eggs:

100g white chocolate, plus a little extra to stick together

Method

Start by making the base: blitz the hobnobs and butter together in a food processor.  If you don’t have a processor, put the biscuits in a bag and beat with a rolling pin then stir into melted butter.  Either way, you’re aiming for a grainy wet sand feel.

Press the crumbs into a 25cm pie plate or flan tin.  I used a disposable foil pie plate that was 3cm deep.  Take care to bring the biscuit mix up the sides of the tin or plate as you need it to be bowl shaped to hold the filling – this filling will be runnier than cheesecake and you need a good structure to retain it!

Refrigerate.

Now make the filling: place the milk, cream, sugar and vanilla seeds along with the vanilla pod into a saucepan and bring to almost boiling point.

While you are waiting for the milk to heat, place the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water to soften.

When the milk is almost at boiling point remove from the heat and add the white chocolate.  Use a whisk to ensure it melts.

Squeeze all the water from the softened gelatine leaves and whisk into the milk mixture. 

When you are happy that both chocolate and gelatine have completely melted, leave the pan to cool for 20 minutes.

Stir the mixture before pouring into the chilled biscuit case.  Don’t worry if you can’t fit all the filling in – simply pour any extra into glass dishes for a bonus dessert!

Once you have filled the case return to the refrigerator rapidly – the biscuit crust is not completely watertight and you want the filling to start setting as soon as possible.  Setting will require a minimum of 4 hours but ideally overnight.

Prepping the rhubarb can be done at the same time, but I don’t advise putting it on the tart until you’re ready to serve as the juices might seep and look messy.

Place the chopped rhubarb into a saucepan along with the sugar and water.  Heat gently until the rhubarb starts to break down and soften.  Take care to watch this process as you don’t want the rhubarb to become mushy.  I like the rhubarb to become a little pulpy but with some pieces kept whole – but do it how you like it.

When the rhubarb is ready, drain it before returning to the pan and stirring through the grenadine (if using).  If you have grenadine I advise using it as it adds a sherbet flavour.

Taste the rhubarb at this point and add more sugar if needed.

Keep the rhubarb in the fridge until ready to finish the tart.

To make the easter eggs simply melt the chocolate and spoon into the egg moulds.

Refrigerate until set then turn out of the mould and use a little extra melted chocolate to stick the halves together.

To build the finished tart spoon the rhubarb chunks over the top and dot the eggs all over.  If the rhubarb has oozed a lot of liquid it is advisable to strain it again before putting it on top of the tart.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.