Brown Sugar Rhubarb Tarts

A sure sign that summer (and our CSA season!) are coming – the arrival of rhubarb! Rhubarb is tangy sour vegetable, and the stalks cooked down with a sweetener are perfect for filling pies, crumble bars, syrups, and more. These individual tarts are filled with a syrupy and sweet rhubarb-ginger mixture. Our frozen stash of local ginger from The Good Life Farm and CSA+ were the perfect compliment to the ginger. The sweet filling is perfect with a scoop of ice cream on top.

I used a tart pan for these, and then made a little free from tart with the leftover dough and filling. Depending on the size of your pan this recipe should yield 6 – 8 tarts. If you don’t have a tart pan, just make free form tarts being careful to leave most of the liquid from the rhubarb in the bowl. The tart pan tarts will hold the liquidy sugar much better. Just grease the pan well, and the tarts shrink a bit while baking, then slide right out. Take your time rolling out the dough, I rolled the whole piece as even and thin as I could, then cut it into 6 sections to roll about 1/4 inch thick. If you have a circle cutter big enough for your tart pan, use that or just use a paring knife to trim the edges once the dough is in the pan. The filling will be liquidy, just leave about a half inch at the top so it doesn’t boil over.

Brown Sugar Ginger Tarts

For the dough:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter
1/4 greek yogurt or sour cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 – 8 tablespoons ice cold water

For the filling:
3 cups rhubarb
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
1 teaspoon lemon zest

Make the dough. Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor, process to combine. Cut the butter into small chunks, add to the mixer, and pulse until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Pulse in the yogurt, then add the water 1 tablespoon at a time until the flour holds together when pinched, but is still slightly crumbly. Turn the mixture out onto a piece of plastic wrap, and use the edges of the plastic wrap to form it into a ball. Refrigerate for about an hour.

Make the filling. Place the filling ingredients in a mixing bowl, and thoroughly combine. Let sit until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is wet, stirring occasionally.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll the pastry dough on a floured surface into 1/4 inch thick rectangle. (Or roll the pastry into a rectangle as thin as you can, then cut into 6 sections and roll each section 1/4 inch thick.) Carefully press dough into the tart cavities and crimp the edges. Fill each tart with about 1/3 of the rhubarb mixture. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes until the filling is bubbling and the edges of the crust browned. Serve at room temperature.

Tart dough adapted from Smitten Kitchen