Orange, Apricot and Rhubarb Frangipane Tart

**Make the most of rhubarb season! A delicious and beautiful dessert!**

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

Pastry:

125g plain flour
35g icing sugar
60g cold unsalted butter
1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp water

Rhubarb:

2 or 3 sticks of rhubarb
250ml water
100g caster sugar
4 tbsp warmed apricot jam

Frangipane Filling:

2 tbsp warmed apricot jam
125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
2 large eggs
2.5 tbsp plain flour
125g ground almonds
Zest of 1 orange
Juice of 1/2 an orange

Method:

In a blender, blitz together the flour, icing sugar and butter until it forms a breadcrumb consistency. You can do this by hand, it will just take longer, and you want to avoid the butter melting into the flour!
Add the egg yolk and water and blitz again until it starts to clump. If you need a bit more liquid, add a tiny bit more water until the dough comes together and you can form it into a ball.
Wrap in cling film and rest the pastry in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, meanwhile preheat the oven to 170 C (fan).
Roll the pastry out onto a lightly floured surface to around 4mm thick.
Grease and line a 7 inch tart tin, and then line it with the pastry, using your hands to gently work the pastry to the edges.
Use the rolling pin to roll over the top of the tart tin to trim off any excess pastry. Spend some time tidying up any uneven areas or cracks in the pastry to ensure it's neat!
Chill the pastry again for around 20-30 minutes, this prevents the dough from shrinking.
Place some baking paper on the inside of the pastry and fill with baking beans. Bake for 15 minutes, remove the baking beans and bake for a further 5-10 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.
Leave to cool.
Meanwhile prepare the rhubarb. Using a mandolin (very carefully - they are sharp!) cut the rhubarb into thin ribbons.
Bring the water and sugar to a simmer, and place in a few ribbons of rhubarb at a time to simmer for a few minutes each. If your rhubarb is greener than you would like, add a few drops of pink food colouring to the water so that the rhubarb absorbs the colour, making a prettier tart!
Leave the ribbons to cool, and then on a sheet of baking paper, lay out the strips in a lattice pattern, weaving over and under until you have a lattice large enough to top the tart.
For the frangipane, cream the butter and sugar together and then add the eggs one at a time.
Mix in the ground almonds and flour, and then the orange zest and juice.
Using a pastry brush, coat the inside of the pastry case with a thin layer of jam, and then fill the pastry case with the frangipane filling, ensuring its smooth.
Bake at 180 C (fan) for 25-30 minutes until lightly golden, remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Brush the top of the frangipane with apricot jam, and then carefully tip the rhubarb lattice onto the top of the frangipane. Using kitchen scissors, carefully trim the lattice to fit on top of the tart.
Finally, glaze the top of the rhubarb with the remaining apricot jam.
Enjoy!