Rhubarb Tart with Aran Goyoaga

Gluten is a word that gets tossed around a lot these days, but most people don't know much about it. Aran Goyoaga is not most people. Raised in Bilbao, Spain, by a family of professional bakers, Goyoaga has spent a lifetime kneading dough and icing cakes. She also suffers from an autoimmune condition, which led her to a gluten-free diet. How do you go gluten-less when you were literally born to bake? Goyoaga approaches the challenge scientifically: first, understand how gluten works in a recipe, then experiment with substitute ingredients and techniques to arrive at results that satisfy in terms of structure, texture, and flavor. Oh, and then snap beautiful photos of your creations and post them on your gorgeous blog, Cannelle et Vanille.

Goyoaga has used this method to master everything from puff pastry to chocolate cake, and she's not afraid to incorporate modern ingredients like xanthan gum into the mix. Here, she's working with a traditional gluten-free mainstay: buckwheat, not a wheat at all, it turns out, but a flour made from the ground seeds of a rhubarb relative. Buckwheat's earthy flavor works really well with any sort of fruit filling; Goyoaga uses a mixture of raspberries and, fittingly enough, rhubarb, but you can stuff that lette with any fruit you like. So roll up those sleeves and get cracking on your new go-to dessert recipe. The fact that it's gluten-free? Well, that just sweetens the deal.