Vegetarian 
Market Produce
Rhubarb (Rhubarbe)
When French meets British in a baked cheesecake. Playing with the British Rhubarb and Custard, this baked cheesecake has a French sablé breton butter biscuit base. Decorate with strawberries and rhubarb chips for someone special.
“It’s yellow!” Monsieur Antoine’s reaction took me by surprise as this cheesecake appeared from the oven. He didn’t get it.
In Britain we grew up not just with rhubarb; it was RHUBARB AND CUSTARD! As the family loves classic cheesecakes, I wanted to experiment this time and take a more rhubarb-and-custard approach to a French-style cheesecake.
How is This Cheesecake French?
You could say this is a Franglais style cheesecake: its French side is the sablé Breton buttery biscuit base, while the rhubarb and custard (achieved with adding vanilla and a couple of egg yolks) is rather British. Sablé Breton is the thinner version of this Palet Breton recipe – just use the same dough to make this irresistible base.
Decorate with dried rhubarb chips but if I had more time, I would have ideally added a few rhubarb and poppy macarons too from Teatime in Paris!
Mini Rhubarb Custard Baked Cheesecakes
This recipe also works well to make mini, individual cheesecakes. Just press the biscuit base into greased (or silicone) muffin moulds and bake for a shorter time (all explained in the recipe below).
Here I decorated each with edible viola flowers, a piece of strawberry and extra rhubarb & hibiscus compote. Great for a tea party!
How to Make Rhubarb & Custard Baked Cheesecake
Press Palet Breton pastry into the base of a 20cm springform cake tin
Rhubarb & Custard Baked Cheesecake
Description
Rhubarb and Custard baked cheesecake has a French sablé breton butter biscuit base and decorated with strawberries
Ingredients
- 250 g (8oz) Rhubarb compote (see recipe link in NOTES)
- 1/2 quantity Palet Breton dough (see recipe link in NOTES)
- 400 g (14oz) Cream cheese (Philadelphia or St Moret)
- 50 g (1.75oz) Sugar
- 2 tbsp Cornflour (cornstarch)
- 2 organic eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla powder or extract
- 10 strawberries for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/360°F/160°C fan (gas mark 4).
- Roll out the sablé breton pastry dough (to about 2cm thickness) and press gently into the bottom of a springform cake tin (20cm diameter) and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, sugar, cornflour, eggs, yolks and vanilla until smooth. Stir in 200g of rhubarb compote.
- Once the base has cooled, line the cake tin with parchment paper and pour in the rhubarb and custard mix. Lower the oven temperature to 130°C/250°F/110°C fan (gas mark 1/2).
- Bake in the oven for 50-55 minutes, or until the top is cooked but still quite wobbly on the top. (If making smaller individual cheesecakes using muffin moulds, then bake for just 35-40 minutes.)
- Leave to cool before turning out of the cake tin then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Notes
Served either chilled or at room temperature and decorate with sliced strawberries, a dollop of extra compote and dried rhubarb chips. Also delicious next day.
Also ideal with the Rhubarb and Poppy Macarons if you have a copy of Teatime in Paris!
Oh my! How could this get any better? LOVE rhubarb and custard and you’ve made the cheesecake look so beautiful, too! I tried a rhubarb and custard meringue tart last year, but something went awry. Will have to go back to the drawing board as I know it just needed a tweak! Who knows if there’s still rhubarb to be had here in LA! I’m out of touch after being gone for a month! 😉
Let’s sincerely hope there is still some rhubarb out there. Otherwise you’ll have to tell folks that you can’t travel during rhubarb season, Christina 😀
Beautiful especially given how challenging it is to make rhubarb look pretty on a pastry… Suppose this is why the next one is probably a tarte rhubarb méringuée 🙂
Thanks for the compliment – I think I do see rhubarb meringue tart in our future if this keeps up, Antoine 😉
You are killing me with your gorgeous rhubarb creations! Beautiful!!!
Hehe, thanks Liz. Can’t get enough rhubarb just now. Hope you’re enjoying the season.
Thanks Carol. I hear you on mandolines now that I’ve shredded a bit of my finger but not on this one. Now I use the safety handle 😉 You don’t need to open an oyster for this one so stay cool.
Gawd it looks gorgeous !!!
If only I did not have serious fear-of-madolines..
First I have to learn to open an oyster….