Yummy yummy, custard tarts. These were aways a cheeky treat when I was a kid. After a days shopping in town with my sister and my mum, we’d pick some things up for dinner in M&S, because who wants to cook after a busy day walking round and shopping? Anyway we these were added to the basket and either nibbled on the way home or the first thing consumed once we got home and put our feet up. Either way a lovely memory of the little tart of eggy custard delicious!
So few ingredients, big flavour?
I don’t know why I was so surprised to see so few ingredient for this recipe, honestly what did I expect, it’s just pastry and custard.
The is made with a sweet pastry which needs to be worked a little more than usual. I was taught that the most important part about pastry is to use cold butter and get a good amount of height when rubbing it between your fingers. This helps to keep the pastry light and short (biscuity). When you add the liquid it should be done so slowly so you can gage whether it is too little or too much. Once the dough is formed it’s important to let it rest in the fridge before you use it. This lets the butter harden up and makes it easier to roll out too. This was particularly important with tho particular pastry as at first it really did feel too wet. Oh well into the fridge it went.
How many eggs!?
I feel another angel cake is on the horizon, with this many leftover egg whites its that or meringues. While the pastry rested in the fridge it was time to move onto the custard. This like the basic ingredients, was a simple process, almost too simple. For a task that was meant to be a technical challenge, I was wondering where the challenge was. Whisking the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and creamy took a little longer than expected. Pouring the milk slowly over the whisked eggs, was performed in a steady if somewhat cack-handed method. I should point out that is could be the stage where things could go wrong, if your milk is too hot or you pour it too fast over the yolks you could end up with scrambled eggs.
Roll out, but how thick?
Once the custard was made, and was thankfully lump free, I had to start the second part of the prep for the cases. After watching the programme there were a few tips I’d like to give. To avoid the calamity that some some of the contestants encountered when in came to taking the tarts out of the baking tin, I thought it would be best to line the bottoms with some baking parchment. Is there a knack to putting it in the tin without a crimping the edges? When is came to rolling out the pastry there was no strict rule as to how thick the pastry needed to be rolled out, so it was guess work for the next part. It needed to be thick enough to hole the shape once cooked, but not so thick that is was going to leave you with a soggy uncooked bottom. As stated it in the recipe I used the 11cm/4½in fluted cutter, but trying to out these into the cases crease free and no overlaps proved tricky. Some ended up with a bigger lip over the side of the cases than others, definitely not uniform. At this point its probably a good idea to put the tin with the pastry lined cases back into the fridge to harden up again, because after all the rolling and pfaffing to get them into the tin, the pastry had warmed up and softened. By cooling them down a bit you should get a crispy cases when you cook it
Oven temp gadget.
When I embarked on this project I wanted to make sure I was armed with the some of the vital tools that could help me to at least attempt to make everything. One of these purchases was an oven thermometer , bought from every bodies favourite kitchen store, Lakeland. Not having a fancy digital oven display like they do on the show I have rely on a dial, that can be a little inaccurate. So armed with the new device I left it in the oven while I dealt with the last process of the tarts before putting them in the oven.
Pouring, balancing, grating fiasco!
Now I would just like to point out that I have made a quiche before, which requires a similar process of pouring liquid into the paster case before cooking. However with a quiche you usually have other ingredients sitting in the case before you fill it with a custard mixture, which helps to stabilise the liquid. This was not the case with these tarts, which is why I only half filled them before getting ready to put them in the hot oven. The fun of the fiasco began not long after the oven was at temperature and the half filled tray was taken to the shelf. Sadly I do not have the fancy telescopic shelved oven that features in the GBBO, much to my disappointment which meant that I had to balance the baking try on the shelf that pulled out half way, and then try to keep it flat while pouring in the rest of the custard. The last stage was to put the jug down, keep the try flat and then grate over the nutmeg. Easier said than done, which meant there was a few puddles on the tin and some strong words vented. In future, I must remember to grate or buy grated nutmeg first!
Slight dome, panic, remove.
Once the tarts were in the oven, it was not the time to relax. I had to keep a close eye on them, sitting in front of the oven keeping a vigil on the process. The tarts needed to get a slight dome not them, anything bigger was dangerous, and meant that the custard was boiling instead, big no no. As soon as I saw this happening I turned the oven down, and with the thermometer still in place I had to open the oven slightly in order to get the temperature down quicker. Once the time was up, and they were moved to a cooling rack with a good slight wobble. Pheww!
Wait and cool…benefit of not being in the bake off tent!
This is one of the many times, I have get grateful that a, I was not restricted on time or the being in the bake of tent. After watching the show, it seemed clear that the contestants did not have enough time for the tarts to cool, before having to remove them. Thankfully I didn’t have this problem so I left them to cool for as long as possible, before attempted to remove them. When the time did come to the removal, I was thankful for the paper discs that I put in the bottom of each case. Each tart did require a slight, delicate nudge with a blunt knife but nothing that caused too much damage.
Voila, cooked, and set.
The final result looked and tasted delicious. Some could have done with a little more nutmeg, and some got more colour that others, but overall not bad for a first attempt. Other than trying to make them look more uniform, and not having custard bubbled over the case, they came out ok. Definitely best eaten on the same day, otherwise the pastry can get a little soft and soggy. When I make these again there will be a few things that I would do differently. The first being to use pre-grated nutmeg rather than go through the pain and heat of the balancing act with an oven venting out heat into you face. The second would be to cook with a baking sheet under the pastry tin. This would better conduction of heat for the bottom of the tart, making doubly sure that you don’t get the dreaded soggy bottom. The third and final thing would be to buy them from the shop after a hard day of retail therapy rather than trying to make them!
Now for the quenelle dance of the spoons. Doing this with potato, ice cream or sorbet, it all a lot easier and cleaner because they have a dense, firmer texture, when it comes egg whites your effectively trying to mould a cloud! You think you have it, with two sides looking good, then you turn the third and oops you’ve lost it. Anyway once I was finally pleased with the shape having turned it several times, losing half the contents of the spoon in the process, I plopped it gently into the now simmering milk mixture. Checking that it was sitting happily in the liquid, I then started on the next oval cloud of egg white.
At this point I was started to get little nervous, especially as when you touched them they seemed to deflate slightly. Did this happen before? I asked myself, but I couldn’t remember as it had been over a year ago! I continued to turn the rest and waited till the time was up. Lifting them out of the pan and placing on a plate, there was yet more deflation…oh uh!
