I've been baking a lot of rhubarb-heavy desserts this year, including Joy Wilson's (aka Joy the Baker) "Rhubarb Cornmeal Crostata" recipe from her cookbook Homemade Decadence. The crostata is a freeform tart is filled with spiced rhubarb.
You make the crust by hand, by working cold cubed butter into the dry ingredients (flour, coarsely ground cornmeal, sugar, and salt), and incorporating an egg yolk and buttermilk. You form the dough into a disk and chill it for an hour before rolling it out to a thickness of a third of an inch. Then you add the filling of chopped rhubarb mixed with orange juice, brown sugar, cornstarch, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
I've made freeform tarts in the past and I've never had a problem folding up the dough over the filling -- but I struggled a little with this one. The dough was not very pliable and my folds were not as neat or uniform as I would have liked. (The cookbook photo shows a perfectly pleated tart ready to go into the oven with a filling the color of roasted beets; I have never seen rhubarb with such a uniform deep ruby color.) I brushed the pastry with a wash of egg white mixed with milk, sprinkled on coarse sugar, and baked the tart until the juices were bubbling.
The most distinctive feature of this tart was the spices in the filling. The recipe calls for a half teaspoon of ground cardamom (which I ground from dried pods using a mortar and pestle), a half teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg, and some ground cloves as well. The cardamom flavor was particularly strong, and while I do like cardamom (I'm a relatively recent convert, since I started grinding my own), I can't decide how I feel about the spices combined with rhubarb. I liked this tart but didn't love it.
To a certain extent, I think the spices became the dominant flavor of the tart, instead of the rhubarb. I also think that the heavy spice level somewhat limits this tart's appeal. I took the crostata to a dinner a friend hosted at his home, and while the adults enjoyed it, the one child in attendance did not care for it. And I can't say I was surprised. But then again, it would be pretty easy to dial back the spices in this tart if you want a purer rhubarb experience.
Recipe: "Rhubarb Cornmeal Crostata" from Homemade Decadence by Joy Wilson.
Previous Post: "The Mild Side of Rhubarb: Sour Cream Rhubarb Pie," August 4, 2019.
You make the crust by hand, by working cold cubed butter into the dry ingredients (flour, coarsely ground cornmeal, sugar, and salt), and incorporating an egg yolk and buttermilk. You form the dough into a disk and chill it for an hour before rolling it out to a thickness of a third of an inch. Then you add the filling of chopped rhubarb mixed with orange juice, brown sugar, cornstarch, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
I've made freeform tarts in the past and I've never had a problem folding up the dough over the filling -- but I struggled a little with this one. The dough was not very pliable and my folds were not as neat or uniform as I would have liked. (The cookbook photo shows a perfectly pleated tart ready to go into the oven with a filling the color of roasted beets; I have never seen rhubarb with such a uniform deep ruby color.) I brushed the pastry with a wash of egg white mixed with milk, sprinkled on coarse sugar, and baked the tart until the juices were bubbling.
The tart looked fairly dry so I wasn't worried about the filling being too juicy. When I sliced it (after it was completely cooled), it sliced easily and cleanly, without any filling our juices leaking out. The crust was fully cooked and firm; you could pick up a slice of tart and eat it as a hand food. I do think that the super thick crust was a bit clunky, however, especially because the cornmeal already gave it a rustic character.
To a certain extent, I think the spices became the dominant flavor of the tart, instead of the rhubarb. I also think that the heavy spice level somewhat limits this tart's appeal. I took the crostata to a dinner a friend hosted at his home, and while the adults enjoyed it, the one child in attendance did not care for it. And I can't say I was surprised. But then again, it would be pretty easy to dial back the spices in this tart if you want a purer rhubarb experience.
Recipe: "Rhubarb Cornmeal Crostata" from Homemade Decadence by Joy Wilson.
Previous Post: "The Mild Side of Rhubarb: Sour Cream Rhubarb Pie," August 4, 2019.
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