Custard tart
Ingredients
- Plain (all-purpose)
- flour 170 g (51/2 oz) Salt a dash
- Butter 115 g (4 oz) + 1 tsp Castor (superfine)
- sugar 2 tsp
- Egg yolk 1, small, lightly beaten
- Cold water 1–2 Tbsp
Custard
- Egg 1
- Egg yolks 2
- Sugar 2 Tbsp
- Plain (all-purpose)
- flour 1 Tbsp
- Milk 160 ml (51/2 fl oz) Single (light)
- cream 160 ml (51/2 fl oz)
- Butter 1 Tbsp, melted Vanilla essence
- (extract) 1 tsp
A smooth, creamy, delicately flavoured custard in a rich shortcrust pastry shell.
Serves 4
Method
- Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
- Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Add 115 g (4 oz) butter and cut it into small pieces with a table knife. Rub flour and butter together with your fingertips until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Mix in sugar.
- Add beaten egg yolk with 1 Tbsp cold water and mix with the knife. With your hands, mix and knead dough until smooth. Add more water if dough is too dry. Chill dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Using remaining butter, grease a 17.5–20-cm (7–8-in) flan tin with a removable bottom.
- Roll out pastry 5 cm (2 in) larger in diameter than flan tin, then ease into tin and trim edges. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
- Remove lined tin from refrigerator and bake blind (see pg 104) for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
- Lower oven temperature to 170°C (340°F).
- Prepare custard. In a mixing bowl, beat egg, egg yolks and sugar together until mixture is thick and pale in colour. Mix in
- flour, then milk, cream, melted butter and vanilla essence.
- Pour into pastry case and bake for 45–50 minutes or until custard is light brown and set. If pastry or filling browns too quickly, cover with a piece of aluminium foil to prevent burning.
- Let tart cool for 10 minutes before removing from tin. Serve cold.
