Best Rhubarb Recipe ever: Swiss Rhubarb Meringue Tart

Warning: This rhubarb recipe is highly addictive. Even people who don’t usually like rhubarb will enjoy this decadent mix of sweet and sour.

One added bonus is that you can use this versatile recipe for almost any other tart tasting fruit or berry that’s in season or you can use frozen ingredients.

Important: If you use frozen ingredients make sure that they are almost defrosted in order to get rid of any excess liquid. This may require some slight squeezing of the defrosted rhubarb. If the filling is too wet, the base may turn out doughy and undercooked.

Beware: This tart is baked in 2 stages and requires an extra step after 25 minutes of baking!

Preparation time:

- Base approx. 10 – 15 minutes (1st step)

- Meringue: 5 minutes (2nd step)

Baking time:

- 25 Minutes: 360° F / 180° C (1^st stage)

- 20 minutes: 360° F / 180° C (2^nd stage)

Base:

1 ¼ sticks (approx. 150 ml) butter softened

2/3 cup (approx. 160 ml) sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla essence

2 eggs whole

2 egg yolks

1 cup all purpose flour

½ cup corn starch

2 tsp. Baking powder

2 - 3 cups (approx. 1 ¼ pound) Rhubarb (can be substituted with berries e.g. cranberries, red currant, raspberries or fruit e.g. plums, prunes or anything else that has a slightly sour taste).

Meringue topping:

2 egg whites

½ cup sugar

1 pinch cream of tartar (can be substituted with baking powder)

Grease a  9 inch / 24  diameter spring form. (If your spring form is slightly smaller, bake base 5 minutes longer, if it’s slightly larger, bake 5 minutes less).

Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs and egg yolks until light and creamy.

Add flour, cornstarch and baking powder and mix until well combined.

Pour batter into spring form and spread evenly.

Chop Rhubarb into chunks (approx. 1 cm) and remove any stringy parts. Sprinkle Rhubarb chunks evenly over batter.

Bake for 25 minutes at 360° F / 180° C in lower half of oven.

Start making the meringue topping 5 minutes before you remove the half-cooked rhubarb base from oven allowing you to finish the cake immediately and putting it back into the oven for the final baking.

Whisk egg whites until almost stiff. Add sugar and cream of tartar and carry on whipping until you have a very stiff and fluffy meringue.

After 25 minutes remove half-baked cake from oven and spread meringue evenly on top.

Return to oven and bake for another 20 minutes at 360° F / 180° C until slightly browned.

Let cool completely before cutting!

If you like to experiment with international cooking and baking recipes I recommend that you purchase a digital scale with an automatic conversion feature (metric/imperial). Make sure that it has a "tare" function that allows you to weigh items consecutively without having to remove the mass already on the platform.

The world's top chefs all work with accurate measurements which cannot be achieved with measuring cups and spoons.

If you are a rhubarb lover you may also want to try out my rhubarb chocolate chip cake recipe:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Rhubarb-chocolate-chip-cake