Rhubarb and Almond Galette

This recipe uses a bought in, ready rolled, puff pastry as its base. On top of that is an almondy frangipane and this is piled with glorious, red rhubarb glistening with apricot jam and guilded with toasted almond flakes. It tastes wonderful, particularly warm with ice-cream or cream, but it tastes equally as delicious the next day, straight from the fridge in slices and eaten as you would a danish with a cup of coffee or tea. It’s not a recipe that is complicated to make, nor does it need lots of difficult ingredients. If you have rhubarb in your (or a friends garden) it’s a wonderful way to use it as is the Rhubarb and Raspberry Crumble with Oats and Hazelnuts or, the real favourites in this household, the Rhubarb Gin and Rhubarb And Redcurrant Jam We have both of these recipes on the go at the moment – we have one for breakfast and one in the evening. I will leave you to guess which one is for when!

Rhubarb, ready for the galette, chopped into 5cm/2” pieces, then halved.

You can make this vegan by buying the green packeted puff pastry which isn’t made with butter, and making the frangipane with a vegan butter and aquafaba and that works beautifully. As Chloe isn’t staying with us at the moment I’ve gone all out with the all butter version here but don’t let that put you off if you are non dairy as those two substitutions make it so easy to adapt.

I like keeping my rhubarb on the sharper side to contrast with the soft frangipane but feel free to add a bit more sugar to the topping if you have a sweeter tooth!

Frangipane and rhubarb

Ingredients (serves 6-8)

320g ready rolled puff pastry

for the frangipane

100g soft butter or vegan spread
100g caster sugar
2 eggs (or 100ml aquafaba and 1/2 tsp baking powder)
100g ground almond
2tbsp self raising flour (not essential)

for the topping

500g rhubarb, chopped into 5cm pieces and halved lengthways
60g caster sugar
zest of one orange (optional)
beaten egg or milk (plant milk is fine) to glaze
5tbsp apricot jam
50g flaked almonds, toasted

Method

Make the frangipane by creaming together the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy, just as you would for a cake.
Add the eggs (or aquafaba and baking powder) and mix thoroughly.
Fold in the ground almonds and flour (if using) until all combined.
Heat oven to 200c/180fan
Unroll the puff pastry onto a lined baking sheet
spread the frangipane evenly over leaning a 2.5cm/1” border around it.
Add sugar and orange zest to the chopped rhubarb and toss through. Pile on top of the frangipane.
Brush border with beaten egg or milk, and gather up the pastry all round to form sides. Brush sides with more egg/milk to glaze.
Place in oven and bake for 45 mins or until frangipane has set. Keep an eye on pastry to see if it is getting too brown and cover if necessary.
Place galette on sheet and allow to cool for 5 minutes before carefully brushing over apricot jam (sometimes if the jan is set solid it’s easier to mix it with a tablespoon or so of just boiled water so it spreads more easily) and sprinkle with flaked almonds
Leave a further 10 mins before cutting or putting on serving dish.