Do you know what I miss most while dieting? Cheese? Nope. Chocolate? Nope; you can still make amazing low-fat chocolate desserts while dieting.

What I really, really miss is pastry. Pies, tarts, pasties, and quiche. Oh, how I miss my Quiche Lorraine and its delicious short, buttery pastry. And fruit tarts! Whether they’re filled with pastry cream and topped with glazed berries, or free-form with fruit bubbling volcanically over pleats of pastry, all tarts are simply wonderful.

Unfortunately, buttery goodness comes at a price. In this instance, shortcrust pastry clocks in at a massive 14.5 Weight Watchers points for a quarter of a standard pack. When you consider that the lowest daily points allowance for a Weight Watchers member (in the UK) is 18, you begin to get an idea of how tragic the pastry situation is.

So, what’s a girl to do?

Hit the kitchen and attempt a reduced-fat pastry, of course!Armed with a food processor, flour, half-fat butter and fat-free natural yoghurt–my thinking being that the acidity of yoghurt would make the pastry more tender thus compensating somewhat for the lack of saturated fat–I set forth upon my quest. My first observation is that half-fat butter contains far more water than standard butter, so I really should have reduced the amount I used. The pastry was a tad too wet for my liking, however after a rest in the fridge it firmed up and rolled out well.

I’d love to report 100% success, but I made a rookie mistake and set the oven to too low a temperature so blind baking didn’t go terribly well. As you can see in the photograph, (a) I didn’t get the pastry rolled out thin enough which set it up nicely for being chewy in places rather than crisp and short and (b) it’s still a bit raw in the middle which I blame on me chilling it in the freezer rather than the fridge prior to baking. I think I employed a few too many pastry tricks at once.

The few bits on the crust where it was cooked through properly–and decently thin–were really quite good. I definitely think that there’s potential for an acceptable reduced-fat pastry, but it’s going to involve a lot of experimentation before I’ll be happy to publish a recipe.

I suppose I should talk about the tart filling now, huh?

Well, back in the spring I stashed away about a kilogramme of rhubarb in the freezer and I’ve been slowly working my way through it, trying my best to make it last until all the delicious, pink forced rhubarb starts appearing again.

While rooting through the freezer, I spied the bag and that was that. Instant rhubarb fever! By happy coincidence I had a rhubarb-lemon tart on my To-Do list from Raymond Blanc’s Cooking for Friends, so I simply lightened the filling recipe slightly by swapping double cream for a cream substitute.

The rhubarb was definitely the star in this tart. The lemon was more of a perfume, with just the merest little hit of lemon flavour which served to greatly enhance the rhubarb. I loved how soft the cream custard was, even after quite a long spell in the oven. The top of the tart managed to acquire a bit of a bruleee taste during baking. This added complexity to the overall flavour and lifted it from ordinary to something slightly more special.

So… imperfect pastry, but a perfect filling. One out of two isn’t bad, right?

Rhubarb-Lemon Tart

Adapted from Raymond Blanc’s “Cooking for Friends”

1 quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (use your own favourite recipe)
400g rhubarb, chopped into 2cm lengths
100g caster sugar
200ml water

2 large egg yolks
50g caster sugar
70ml double cream (I used Elmlea double cream substitute)
1 lemon (preferably unwaxed)

Grease an 11″ tart tin.

Preheat oven to 190C (or whatever temperature your pastry recipe recommends.)

Dust surface with flour and roll out pastry. Let rest for five minutes before lining the tin. Prick the base with a fork, line with baking parchment or tinfoil and fill with baking beans (or equivalent.)

Bake for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the parchment and beans. If necessary, return to the oven for a further five minutes.

In a large, wide saucepan bring the sugar and water to the boil. Boil for 2 minutes. Add the rhubarb, return to the boil and simmer for a minute. Carefully drain the rhubarb into a plastic sieve. (You can reserve the rhubarb syrup if you want–boiled down it makes a great base for cocktails.)

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and caster sugar until the mixture is pale and has tripled in volume. Stir in the cream and finely grate in 1/4 of the zest of a lemon. (Do this over the bowl so that you don’t lose any of the citrus oils.)

Arrange the rhubarb in an even layer over the base of the pastry case. Spoon over the lemon custard.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the custard is set and nicely golden brown. It may puff up slightly and drop as it cools–don’t worry. Call it “rustic” and point out that it is the taste that truly matters.

Serve at room temperature. Raymond notes that this can be made several hours in advance; I should also point out that any leftovers keep very well in the fridge for a couple of days.

This post is my contribution to this month’s “Waiter, there’s something in my…” event. This month’s host is Jeanne and the theme is topless tarts. Oooer-missus!1