rhubarb and pistachio frangipane tart
24 Aug 2026
I was invited to a friend's place for dinner and I usually bring the dessert. As it's rhubarb season here I decided to make a rhubarb frangipane tart but with a twist. Instead of making the frangipane with almond meal alone, the frangipane was made with a mix of pistachio and almond meal. The idea came from Nicola Lamb's fancy rhubarb tart recipe which is in her cookbook, Sift.
I sourced some pistachio meal but I find the taste of pistachio meal a bit intense so I added in some almond meal to balance out the flavour of the frangipane. The rest of the tart is a tried and true recipe that I've been making for many years.
Here's the recipe for you which makes an 11 x 33cm tart. You’ll only need about half the pastry for this recipe. The pastry freezes well, so wrap securely and freeze until needed. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.
Rhubarb and pistachio frangipane tart
Filling
1 bunch of rhubarb, washed, trimmed of tough strands and cut into 10-cm lengths
85g caster sugar
thinly peeled rind and juice of ½ orange
1 cinnamon quill
Pastry
¼ cup/40g icing sugar
¼ cup/25g almond meal
1⅓ cups/200g plain flour
pinch sea salt flakes
110g cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cold water
Frangipane
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp grated orange rind
1 large egg
50g pistachio meal
50g almond meal
2 tbs plain flour
pinch sea salt flakes
1 bunch of rhubarb, washed, trimmed of tough strands and cut into 10-cm lengths
85g caster sugar
thinly peeled rind and juice of ½ orange
1 cinnamon quill
Pastry
¼ cup/40g icing sugar
¼ cup/25g almond meal
1⅓ cups/200g plain flour
pinch sea salt flakes
110g cold unsalted butter, diced
1 egg, lightly beaten
Cold water
Frangipane
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp grated orange rind
1 large egg
50g pistachio meal
50g almond meal
2 tbs plain flour
pinch sea salt flakes
To assemble
½ cup rhubarb or raspberry jam
Sieved warmed apricot jam
Method
Preheat oven to 200°C, conventional. Arrange rhubarb snugly in a baking dish, scatter sugar and orange peel over, drizzle with juice and add cinnamon quill. Cover with foil and roast for 5-10 minutes or until you can just pierce the rhubarb with a knife. Set aside to cool. You’ll need about 325g of the rhubarb slices. I like to cook the rhubarb juices until they form a syrup, which I then mix with apricot jam when glazing the tart.
To make the pastry, combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor, and whiz for a few seconds until well combined and free of lumps. Add the cold butter and whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and sufficient cold water and whiz until a soft dough just starts to form around the blade. Remove the dough from the food processor and gather the pastry into a ball; flatten slightly before wrapping in plastic and placing in the fridge. Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes.
Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to 4mm thickness. Line a rectangular (11x33cm) tart tin with the pastry and return to the fridge while you prepare the filling.
Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional and place a baking tray on the centre rack.
Filling
Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla and orange rind together until pale and fluffy. Mix in the egg followed by the flour, ground nuts and salt to form a soft batter. You can also do this step in the food processor.
Assembly
Remove the tart shell from the fridge. Cover the base of the tart with the jam. Carefully cover the jam with the frangipane filling. Smooth the top with a knife then arrange the rhubarb lengths over the frangipane filling.
Place the tart on the baking tray in the preheated oven. Reduce the oven to 190°C, conventional and bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour or until the filling is set and the pastry nicely browned. If the rhubarb is drying out too much cover with foil or baking paper. When baked, remove from the oven and cool on a rack.
When cold, glaze the top of the tart with some thinned, warmed apricot jam. Just before serving, unmould from the tin and cut into slices.
This received rave reviews from the dinner party guests who declared it the perfect mix of sweet and sour and that it needed no adornments.
Bye for now,
Jillian