Rhubarb and bergamot pastry cream filled tart

No birthday cake just yet today, I will be posting about my youngest son's birthday tomorrow because today is the deadline for SHF. I planned on making this tart for his birthday too but ran out of time to make the pastry cream. We didn't invite too many people so I thought 2 small cakes instead of 3 would be enough (they were). I didn't want to waste the pie crust, rhubarb and the many egg yolks that were left over from the other cakes I made. So I decided to finish the tart today. Initially the idea was to make a tart filled with bergamot white chocolate ganache and rhubarb. But I had so many egg yolks in the fridge that pastry cream was a more obvious choice. Also I never made it before and it's always good to try out new things :)
I only used 5-6 drops of bergamot essentail oil in the pastry cream and that generated a pretty heavy bergamot taste. The essential oil is extracted from the peel of the bergamot orange. It's where Earl Grey tea gets its taste from. I thought it tasted more like resin than like citrus. A very earthy kind of taste. It tasted ok in the pastry cream but I think it would have been better in white chocolate ganache though. The combination with rhubarb was ok but not the very best combination. I think it would be better to just use the bergamot essential oil in cookie dough or truffles. Will try that out another time.
I tried making pâte sucrée this time instead of my usual Donna Hay sweet shortcrust dough but the recipe was not a very good one. The dough turned out too dry even though I used a large egg yolk. Will have to try a different recipe next time.
This is my entry for this month's citrus themed SHF hosted by Helen of Tartelette.



Bergamot pastry cream (adapted from by The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard)

makes more than enough for a 15 cm (6 in) tart

2 cups milk
½ cup sugar
3 tbs cornflour
pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
5-6 drops of bergamot essential oil
1 tbs butter, softened

Bring the milk and ¼ cup of the sugar to a simmer.
Sift the cornflour with the remaining ¼ cup of sugar and the salt. Whisk the egg yolks and add the cornflour/sugar mixture while whisking. Whisk until smooth.
Remove the milk from the heat. Add ½ cup of the hot milk to the egg yolk mixture while whisking. Pour this mixture into the hot milk while whisking. Allow to come to a boil while continuing whisking and allow to thicken. Cook for 3 minutes (keep whisking!). Add the bergamot essential oil and whisk until combined. Strain the pastry cream through a sieve into a bowl. Add the butter and mix until incorporated. Place plastic wrap onto the surface of the pastry cream. Allow to cool.

To assemble

15 cm (6 in) pastry crust
4-5 tbs cooked and sweetened rhubarb, thickened with some potato flour

Spread a layer of pastry cream into the the pastry crust. Pipe blobs along the crust. Fill the middle with rhubarb.