Red currant tart or Rybízový táč is a very typical Czech dessert that is what to many people summer tastes like. Summer at the countryside.
So many Czechs who used to spend their summers at their grandparent’s will have the red currant tart as an inseparable part of their childhood memories. Fluffy cake, sour currant and sweet streusel, that is just the perfect combination.
Currant is a very common plant in almost the whole Czech republic. There is black currant, which is the sweetest and perfect for sour-sweet marmalades and ice-creams, the white currant which is probably the least common, it’s somewhere between sweet and sour and is usually just eaten fresh, and the red currant, the most common type, that is sour even when ripe and it’s often used in cakes and the best marmalade for Christmas cookies called Linecké.
Táč is a type of fruit cake with very fluffy pastry and the charm of the red currant tart is the combination of the sweet and sour. It’s very easy to make, you just make the batter, place a layer of fruit and the streusel on top. Although red currant tart should be called červenorybízový táč, it’s called just rybízový táč (currant tart) because other types of currant are used rarely for this dessert.
If you’d like to explore the Czech cuisine a little more, there’s a whole bunch of recipes in the Recipes category.
Ingredients
(1 cup = 300 ml)
- 1 cup of coarse flour – read the Czech flour guide
- 1 cup of semi coarse flour
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of milk
- 1/2 cup of oil
- 1 bag of baking powder (15 g) / 1/2 tsp of baking soda
- 1 egg
- 500 g of red currant – feel free to use the type of currant you have
- pinch of salt
For streusel
- 1 cup of sugar
- 100 g of butter (unsalted, of course, as always for Czech cooking!)
- 1/2 cup of coarse flour
How to make the Red Currant Tart
Make sure to clean all the green parts and have only the berries. Although in this recipe I’m using photos with a smaller amount of currant, more is better here, so prepare at least half a kilo for this amount of batter.
Prepare the streusel – mix flour and sugar, cut the butter in smaller pieces and then mix it properly with your fingers until everything is well combined, although crumbly.
Combine the two types of flour with sugar, salt and baking powder, then whisk in the milk, egg and oil. Pour the mixture into a baking tray, place (a lot of) red currant on top of it and then the streusel.
Preheat the oven on 180 °C and bake for 25 minutes. Part of the streusel will melt, the cake will be golden and the currant should still be visible on the top of the tart.
Some of the berried will sink to the bottom.
Let it cool a little and cut into squares.
