They were impractical and the more I looked at it, the more they looked like a medical condition. These are the French meringues, dusted with a bit of extra strawberry powder. The first version I made was topped with crisp baked French meringue dollops. They are all surprisingly straightforward but each have their own pros and cons. There are lots of methods for making meringues. I made a few versions of this tart trying to figure out which type of meringue topping would be best. I needed two drops of Americolor Super Red. Depending on how red it is, you will probably need to add a few drops of red food dye to the curd if you want it to have the deep pink color of rhubarb. It was rather floppy but cooked up just fine and with a lot of flavor so don’t worry if your rhubarb isn’t perfect. I had to buy my rhubarb at the grocery store since it’s so early in the season. You don’t really need to use a blender or food processor on the rhubarb puree unless, like me, you demand complete and total silky-smoothness from your fruit curds. In the end, I used a few tablespoons of corn starch to make sure it would set-up enough to be sliced and served easily. It was a little tricky getting the rhubarb curd to thicken up. Everything else will be the same, your meringue rosettes will just be sitting atop the tart instead of inside it. But if you only have a classic tart pan, you can simply reduce the crust recipe by about a third. I’ve made my tart in a 10″ wide pan with 2″ high sides because I like the way the meringue is nestled into the pan. Press it into the bottom and up the sides as evenly as you can, then chill it completely before baking. When you put the tart dough in the pan, expect it to be quite crumbly.

I’ve used this same crust with curd fillings before, like this Earl Grey Lavender Lemon Tart or this lemon tart with White Chocolate Blueberry Buttercream, and it’s worked like a charm. It’s the base of a yummy lemon tart from Ina Garten and it is extra-sturdy and buttery and yummy. It’s bursting with juicy flavor, rich and tart, and topped with pillowy swirls of strawberry meringue.įor this strawberry rhubarb tart I chose a sturdy shortbread crust that would stand up to the moisture without getting soggy and stay crisp for several days in the fridge.

This Strawberry Rhubarb Tart does it all. I wanted to see if I could pack all that spring flavor into a tart resembling a lemon meringue pie, using rhubarb as the filling and adding strawberries to the classic Italian meringue topping. That and the end of another soul-crushing Chicago winter of course. A strawberry rhubarb pie is one of the best things about spring. I love the vibrant flavor and tartness of strawberry and rhubarb.

Rhubarb tart recipe