Triple Baked Rubharb Tart

This is a demanding pie to make, but like a French Lady, she will reward those who know how to honor her.

The pie is baked three times:

1. Bake shell, rhubarb and biscuits
2. Prepare custard and bake further with custard
3. Prepare meringue and bake further with meringue

Take 500gr rhubarb - the French lady understands nothing of ounces and pounds and only speaks in grams - get used to it.

Partially peel the rhubarb, then chop. Discard the peelings.

THE SHORT DOUGH
Pâte à foncer
250g flour
Salt
15gr sugar
125 butter
50gr egg
50gr water
I hate savory short doughs used in sweet pies - you need sugar in there.

I use my Kenwood kitchen machine instead of my arms to knead the dough, hence my size. You can get even better results with your bare hands.

Cut the butter into small cubes. This is not optional, as short dough is a precarious balance between dry powders and tiny bits of butter. If you work with very soft butter, you'll end up with cardboard-like dough and won't have the amazing crumbly texture of a proper short dough. Heed my words!

Sift flour, salt and baking powder, then fold in butter and mix until crumbly.

Add the water and mix on.

Add the eggs...

... and continue to mix.

Do not overmix! As soon as the dough starts having a uniform appearance with no large wet or yellow patches, stop.

Cover and put in a cool place for 2 hours.

Grease your pie pan, then sprinkle a little flour and toss until the pan is white all over.

Getting from this ...

to this is never easy. Short dough, you see, is not very pliable and very short on patience with the novice cook. As you try to stretch it with a rolling pin, it keeps breaking. You will most probably need to patch it up until you get the proper circular shape.

Use a fork to prick it all over.

French pastry chefs use biscuits à la cuillère or biscuits de Reims, sponge fingers to soak up the juice the rhubarb will inevitably produce when baked. It is essential to do this but you might use other cookies.

Crush 3 biscuits ...

... and sprinkle over the stretched dough.

Add the chopped rhubarb...

... and bake for 15 minutes in a 200°C/400°F oven - our first baking out of three.

THE CUSTARD
2 eggs
50gr milk
50gr cream
75gr sugar

We'll now prepare the custard that will enrich the pie and compensate for the rhubarb juice lost by evaporation or soaked up by the cookies. Pour the milk in a bowl and add the sugar, add the eggs and whisk everything until smooth.

As soon as the first baking is over - 15 minutes - pour the custard over the pie. Here I'm using a fancy entonnoir à piston but you can do it with a beaker.

Reduce temperature to 180°C/350°F and bake for a further 30 minutes - our second baking.

THE MERINGUE
70gr egg whites (about 2 large eggs)
105gr sugar

Separate egg yolks from whites and beat like a madman precisely as I explained in Making Your Own Meringues. Mix in the sugar and place in a pastry bag. I recommend you buy a roll of disposable transparent pastry bags, they are a gift of the plastic God to pastry chefs.

After the second baking, the custard has set and the dough is baked through.

Pipe your meringue with the pastry bag firmly in your left hand, not under the arm like a bagpipe, and the right hand guiding it to make concentric circles.

Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar using a tea strainer or fine sieve.

Reduce temperature to 160°C/320°F and bake for a final 5 minutes - our third baking.

That's it, here is our plump French lady coming out of the oven.

Delicately cut a slice and let her give you a warm kiss.