Rhubarb White Chocolate Tartelettes

White chocolate and rhubarb, could it work? I’d had mini pastries a lot like this with blackberry, which I loved growing up. I wasn’t really sure about this combination, but was tempted to try it nonetheless. And not sorry, because it turns out the white chocolate was more than sweet enough to compensate for both the sugar-free shortcrust pastry dough, and the wonderful tartness of the rhubarb.

Don't take my word for it though... give it a shot and judge for yourself.

Ingredients (makes 12):

New York Times Basic Shortcrust Pastry Dough Recipe:

3tbsp (45 ml) ice water

115 g cold butter

½ tsp salt

145 g all-purpose flour

200 grams rhubarb 

¼ cup sugar
1 tbsp orange juice
grated rind of 1/2 orange

¼ cup double cream (whipping cream)
100g white chocolate
(*credit for this recipe goes to Stephanie Hooi of RaspBerri Cupcakes)

Now, you can do one of two things here. You can either go the way I did and start with the shortcrust dough a few hours (or day) ahead, or you can get yourself some ready-made dough. The latter is less work. The former is more satisfying. It’s really up to you.

Dough:
1. Mix the butter, flour and salt until crumbly with the hand mixer.

2. Add the ice water and pulse with that hand blender for another 30 seconds or so, until the dough is mixed. (Ice water, you say? I just took the water and stuck it in the freezer for 5 or 10 minutes - the top had iced over, the rest was nicely cold. The ice crumbles anyway when you add it).

3. Shape into a flat disc, wrap in cling film, and put in the fridge for around 2 hours, or overnight.

4. Remove the dough from the fridge. Leave it out on the countertop for 10 minutes to reach a cool room temperature. Then, on a heavily floured surface, using floured hands (and a floured rolling pin), roll out as thin as you can manage without it crumbling. (I used a circular cookie cutter and piled it into cupcake forms but you can use a glass or something similar to do the same. Thin foil tartelette cups probably make for prettier tarts - mine had visible ridges left by the cupcake forms.)

5. After you've finished placing the dough into the forms, cover in cling film and place in the fridge for another 30 minutes-1 hour, until the dough has firmed. This should help the dough shrink when you place it in the oven.

6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (about 360 degrees Fahrenheit).

7. Remove the tarts from the fridge, use a fork to prick some holes into the bottoms/sides of the tart shells, and place in the oven on a centered rack for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.

8. While the tart shells are cooling, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (about 400 degrees Fahrenheit).

9. Wash the rhubarb, trim the ends, and cut into pieces about 4 cm (1.5 inch) long. Place in an oven dish (single-layer) and sprinkle with the sugar, orange juice and rind. Stir around so that it mixes a bit and all the rhubarb is coated, then cover with aluminium foil and put in the oven for about 15 minutes. Remove the foil and leave for another 5 minutes.

10. As the rhubarb is in the oven, you can make the chocolate filling. Take the cream and bring it to an almost-boil over a very low flame. Break the white chocolate into chunks and add, stirring constantly, until all the white chocolate is melted. Turn off the heat about halfway through this process.

11. Pour the white chocolate mixture into the tart shells. Wait for 10-15 minutes, then place a piece of rhubarb onto each tartelette. As usual, I was too impatient and skipped the waiting. Because I didn't let the chocolate firm first, the excess spilled over the sides and leaked out. The tarts will be even nicer if you do wait a little -- allowing the chocolate to settle a bit means that less of it will spill out.

12. Set on a rack to dry, and enjoy! :)