blogger is back - rhubarb, cherry and walnut crostata

Beautiful rhubarb from Wray avenue, a jar of cherries, a sprinkle of toasted walnuts and beautiful pastry. Yum

Filling

500g rhubarb (1 bunch) chopped into 4cm lengths

250g brown sugar

100g white sugar

Thinly peeled rind and juice 1 orange

Thinly peeled rind and juice 1/2 lemon

1 cinnamon stick

Scraped seeds 1 vanilla bean

1 jar morello cherries (340g)

150g walnuts, toasted in a pan until fragrant and nutty, then chopped finely

Pastry

220g plain flour

100g cold butter, chopped

60g icing sugar, sieved

Scraped seeds 1 vanilla bean

Zest of one lemon

1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

Eggwash for brushing

Sugar for dusting

For the pastry: Combine butter, flour, icing sugar, vanilla bean and lemon zest. I used two knives to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. An alternative is to use a food processor. Combine until you have coarse crumbs. Add the egg and egg yolk and mix until the dough just comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap and then leave to rest in the fridge for at least 1-2 hrs.

For the filling: Combine all of the filling ingredients except the cherries in a saucepan with a lid on top. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the rhubarb is thick and jammy. Remove the cinnamon stick. Drain the cherries and mix through the rhubarb. Leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Roll out 2/3 of the pastry on a floured surface to 3-5mm thick to line a 23cm flan tin. Sprinkle pastry with walnuts. Fill with the rhubarb mixture. Roll out remaining pastry to 3-5mm thick, cut into 15mm wide strips. Arrange in a lattice shape over the filling. Brush pastry with eggwash, dust with sugar and bake until the pastry is crisp and golden 40-45mins. Cool slightly in tin before removing and serving with ice cream or cream.