FLOWER POT KITCHEN: CUSTARD TART

4 Feb 2017

CUSTARD TART

So simple yet so divine...

These gorgeous little rustic sweet pastry egg custard tarts are a perfect treat, light crumbly melt in your mouth pastry filled with a rich decadent egg and vanilla cream just set wobbly custard finished off with that all essential dusting of nutmeg to send this tart to perfection...

Prep time 10 minutes / Pastry resting time 1 hour / Cooking time 30-40 minutes

Ingredients

(makes 10)

Sweet Pastry

350g plain flour

150g soft unsalted butter

100g icing sugar

pinch of salt

2 eggs beaten

Egg Custard Filling

5 egg yolks

55g caster sugar

333ml double cream

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 tsp grated nutmeg

First make the pastry, place the soft butter and icing sugar on your work top or in a bowl and gently using your fingers and thumb in a pecking action (think chicken beak pecking action!), incorporate the butter in to the icing sugar until combined.

Add the eggs to the butter sugar mix and beat together until incorporated as one.

Add the salt to the flour and start to add to the eggs and sugar mix chopping the flour in until you have a rough dough, it will happen, bring together with you hands and knead a couple of times to form a smooth dough ball, wrap in baking paper and pop in the fridge to rest and chill for 1 hour.

Meanwhile make the egg custard, place the egg yolks in a large bowl and whisk, add the sugar and whisk until light and fluffy, next add the vanilla bean paste and cream and whisk until smooth. Leave on the side until needed.

Roll out the pastry as thin as you dare and using a circle cutter cut out the circle size that fits your baking tins, line your tins with the pastry and then some baking paper and baking beans. Blind bake at 180 C / 360 F for 10 minutes then remove the baking paper and beans and bake for a further 5 minutes.

Turn the oven down to 120 degrees, fill your pastry cases, take the egg custard and skim off the bubbly top from the custard, then pour in to the pastry cases and dust the tops with a little pinch of the nutmeg.

Pop in the oven to cook for approx 20 minutes, the custard tarts are done when there is a almost set wobble in the centre when you jiggly the baking tin, remove from the oven and leave to cool on a cake rack, then enjoy.

No comments:

LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.