The Great British Chefs team says: Frangipane tarts can form the base for all sorts of fruit and flavourings. Here, it provides a rich, sweet foil against the tartness of rhubarb and the fragrance of cardamom. The toasted oats in the pastry also add a surprising amount of flavour and provide a little crunch. Get creative with your rhubarb placement – we’ve kept it simple here, but if you have the time a little tessellation will guarantee wow-factor.

Serves 6-8 

Ingredients

Pastry

• 130g of oats
• 150g of plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 60g of icing sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 150g of unsalted butter, chilled and diced
• 1 egg

Filling

• 125g of unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
• 125g of golden caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 125g of ground almonds
• 20 cardamom pods, green husks lightly bashed and removed and the black seeds ground to a powder
• 200g of rhubarb, sliced into whatever shape you like
• Crème fraîche, to serve

Method

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Place the oats on a baking tray and bake for around 10 minutes, or until golden, stirring every few minutes to make sure they don’t burn. Leave to cool, then blitz in a food processor to a fine powder. Add the flour, icing sugar, salt and butter then blitz again until it becomes sandy in consistency. Add the egg and pulse a few times until it comes together as a dough, then flatten into a disc, wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 1 hour.

Grease a 23cm tart tin with a removable base with butter, then dust with flour. Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of baking paper until around 5mm thick, then transfer to the tart case, leaving plenty of overhang. Prick the base with a fork all over, then return to the fridge for another 30 minutes. This is important, as it stops the pastry shrinking during cooking.

Preheat an oven to 170°C. Place a sheet of foil on top of the pastry, moulding it into the sides. Fill the foil with baking beans or dried rice, then place in the oven to blind-bake for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and foil and bake for another 5 minutes, then leave to cool slightly. Use a serrated knife to carefully trim away the overhang.

To make the filling, beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy, then mix in the egg. Stir in the ground almonds and ground cardamom, then spoon this mixture into the pastry case. Top with the rhubarb, then bake for another 35-40 minutes, or until the frangipane is set and the tart is a deep golden all over – a little light charring around the edges is fine. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin, then leave to cool completely.

To serve, slice the tart and plate up with a generous dollop of crème fraîche.

From Around The Table by Great British Chefs (£24.99, Food Publishing) out now

Edd says: My all-time favourite pie is made with that glorious combination of rhubarb and strawberries. The only problem? Making this pie in the UK isn’t as simple as it seems. The best rhubarb comes into season early on in the year, but by the time the strawberries appear at the market, rhubarb has all but disappeared, or it’s thick, green and stringy, which is not what I’m looking for. However, when the stars align and by some miracle the two cross over, I make pie, and when a pie is too much effort, I make cobbler, all the joy, half the work. The topping for this recipe also happens to be gluten-free, using a blend of oat flour, ground almonds and rice flour.

Serves 12

Ingredients

For the filling

• 680g fresh rhubarb, cut into 2.5cm pieces
• 680g fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• juice of 1 lemon
• 200g caster (superfine) sugar
• 5 tablespoons ground arrowroot or cornflour 

For the drop scones

• 125g oat flour
• 125g ground almonds
• 100g rice flour
• 150g caster (superfine) sugar
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 125g unsalted butter, diced and chilled
• 160ml buttermilk
• demerara sugar, for sprinkling
• vanilla ice cream, to serve (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C, Gas Mark 5.

For the filling, place the fruit into the baking tin and toss together with the vanilla and lemon juice. In a small bowl, mix together the caster sugar and arrowroot or cornflour.

 Sprinkle this mixture over the fruit and toss together to combine. Set aside while you make the drop scone mixture. In a large bowl, mix together the oat flour, ground almonds, rice flour, caster sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and toss together to coat in the flour mixture. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles uneven breadcrumbs. 

Pour in the buttermilk, using a round-bladed knife to stir it into the breadcrumb mixture until evenly combined. Using a large spoon or spring-loaded ice-cream scoop, dollop the drop scone mixture atop the fruit and then sprinkle with demerara sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until the scones are golden brown and the filling is bubbling. If the scones are browning too quickly, tent the cobbler with a sheet of foil partway through baking.

Leave the cobbler to cool for 10 minutes or so before serving each portion with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, if you like. This cobbler is best eaten warm on the day it’s made.

From One Tin Bakes by Edd Kimber (£17.99, Kyle Books) out now 

Bettina says: Do you have leftover stale bread lying around? I know exactly what you can make with it. Reimagined bread and butter pudding with rhubarb and custard. So good!

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

For the pudding

• 500ml coconut milk
• 100g pitted dates
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 baguette or 500g stale bread (preferably white)

For the roasted rhubarb

• 380g fresh rhubarb
• zest of 1 orange
• ½ vanilla pod (bean), split and the seeds scraped out, or ½ teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup

For the custard

• 2 tablespoons cornflour or 2 tablespoons dairy-free custard powder
• 360ml whole plant milk (I prefer full-fat oat milk)
• ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 vanilla pod (bean), split and the insides scraped out, or 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
• 2 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar or a sweetener of your choice
• zest of ½ lemon

Method

Whizz the coconut milk, dates, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom in a food processor or blender until smooth. Tear the bread into a deep baking dish, then pour the coconut milk mixture over the top. Let the mixture soak into the bread for at least 1 hour, or overnight.

When you are ready to bake the pudding, preheat the oven to 180°C and bake for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, make the roasted rhubarb by cutting each stalk into three pieces. Add to a bowl with the orange zest, vanilla and maple syrup. Mix well to coat the rhubarb.

Line a baking tray with baking parchment and add the marinated rhubarb, pouring any remaining marinade on top. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes once the pudding has been baking for 15 minutes, so they are both ready at the same time. While the bread and butter pudding is cooking, make the custard. Whisk the cornflour/custard powder, milk, turmeric, vanilla and sugar together in a small saucepan.

Bring to the boil on the stovetop while stirring until the custards thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, then remove from the heat. Stir in the lemon zest and set aside to cool. 

Serve the bread and butter pudding with the roasted rhubarb and some Homemade Custard on the side.

From Celebrate by Bettina Campolucci Bordi (£20, Hardie Grant) out now

Julian says: Few things can compete with the first cut of outdoor-grown rhubarb every season – the pleasing sharpness of the fruit contrasts wonderfully well with the creamy mascarpone filling in this tart.

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

Filling

• 500g rhubarb, cut into 2-cm/1-inch slices
• 175g caster sugar
• 30g salted butter, soft
• 225g mascarpone
• 30g plain flour
• grated zest of 1 orange
• 2 eggs, separated
• 100ml double cream

Shortbread base

• 135g salted butter, soft
• 65g caster sugar
• 160g plain flour
• 15g cornflour
• 25g rice flour

Syrup

• 2 teaspoons arrowroot
• freshly squeezed juice of 1 orange

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C, Gas mark 5. Put the rhubarb for the filling in an ovenproof dish, sprinkle 60 g/1⁄3 cup of the sugar over the top and cover with foil. Roast in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Remove the rhubarb from the oven and strain it, reserving the juice for later. Set aside. Leave the oven on.

To make the shortbread base, put all the ingredients in a large bowl and rub together using your fingertips until it forms a paste. Knead gently into a smooth ball of dough (refrigerate it for a few minutes if it is too soft to work).

Alternatively, put the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor or electric stand mixer and blend until it forms a smooth ball of dough. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to form a circle about 5 cm/ 2 inches larger than the pan. Drape the pastry over the rolling pin and carefully transfer it to the tart pan. Gently mould the pastry into the base and sides. Trim the top edge with a sharp knife. Line the tart case with a sheet of baking parchment.

Fill the tart case with baking beans and blind bake in the preheated oven for 15–20 minutes. Take out of the oven, remove the baking parchment and baking beans. When cool, lines the sides of the tart pan with strips of baking parchment about 5 cm/2 inches high.

To make the filling, put the butter, remaining sugar, the mascarpone, flour and orange zest into a large bowl. Beat until evenly mixed, then add the egg yolks and cream. Beat to a creamy consistency and set aside.

Put the egg whites in a clean, grease-free bowl and, using an electric stand mixer or hand whisk, whisk the egg whites on high speed until light and foamy and soft peaks are formed. Transfer to the mascarpone mixture and whisk together, then spoon into the tart case. Distribute the roasted rhubarb evenly over the filling. Bake for 40–45 minutes or until golden brown and the filling is set like a hot soufflé– firm but with a slight wobble!

To make the syrup, stir together the arrowroot and 2 tablespoons water in a cup. Put the reserved rhubarb juice and the orange juice into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and start stirring in the arrowroot – it may not all be needed, depending on how much juice you’ve produced from your rhubarb. The syrup should be just slightly thickened, as it thickens further with cooling.

Serve the tart warm with the syrup poured on top.

From Artisan Home Baking by Julian Day (£14.99, Ryland Peters & Small) out now

Darina says: Crumbles vie with fruit pies as the top comfort food for all ages and you can vary the fruit according to the season – see some suggestions below. Also try adding 25g rolled oats to the crumble instead of the nuts for a different texture.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 700g rhubarb
• 110g granulated sugar

For the crumble

• 50g cold butter
• 110g plain flour, preferably unbleached
• 50g caster sugar
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon or mixed
• spice (optional)
• 25g chopped almonds or hazelnuts (optional)

To serve

• softly whipped cream
• dark soft brown sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. Cut the rhubarb into approx. 2.5cm pieces. Turn into 1.2-litre pie dish. Sprinkle with the sugar. Rub the butter into the flour just until the mixture resembles really coarse breadcrumbs, add the sugar, and cinnamon and chopped nuts, if using. 

Sprinkle this mixture over the rhubarb in the pie dish. Bake for 30–45 minutes or until the crumble is cooked and golden.

Serve with whipped cream and soft brown sugar. Or, mix the softly whipped cream with chopped crystallized ginger to serve.

From How to Cook by Darina Allen (£22, Kyle Books) out now