Little Custard Tarts

So it has been awhile since my last post…………. busy busy busy studying.

But alas I have made some time to bake, albeit that my floors are still dirty, oh well they will still be there tomorrow unfortunately………. it would be so nice if the cleaning fairies came to visit me tonight…(yeah yeah I know I’m dreaming!) Any how this post is not about my lack of time and dirty floors it is about these amazing little custard tarts I made and yes I know I may be bias as made them but truly they are amazing 🙂

I have been studying pastry at tafe this week; puff, short, choux and sweet so with pastry fresh on my mind I though custard tarts would be a yummy sweet treat.

These yummy custard tarts can be made with both puff or sweet pastry, the puff pastry making them more of a Portuguese custard tart. You can also make one large tart or little ones I made mine in a muffin tin.

The custard  is quite flexible as well as you can use just milk or just cream or a combination of milk and cream in what ever ratio you like, just knowing that the cream will make your custard much richer. I used 300g of cream and 100g of milk. You can also play around with the sugar making your custard to suit. So have a play around with the ratios and see what works best for you.

RECIPE:

PASTRY

• 190g caster sugar
• 300g butter
• 2.5g salt
• 2 eggs
• 225g bakers flour
• 225g cake flour or plain flour

METHOD:

1. Mix sugar, salt and butter until well blended but not creamed
2. Add eggs one at a time mixing well between each addition
3. Add the sifted flours and mix until dough forms
4. Knead lightly together on bench, shape into a a oblong shape and place in fridge to rest

CUSTARD

• 3 egg yolks
• 115g caster sugar
• 2 Tsp cornflour
• 300g cream
• 100g milk
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or 1 vanilla bean spilt in 2 and seeds scraped out

METHOD:

1. place egg yolks, sugar and cornflour into a bowl and whisk together till smooth
2. place cream, milk and vanilla into a saucepan and bring to the bowl
3. slowly pour boiling milk/cream into egg mixture making sure that you are stirring continuously
4. pour mixture back into saucepan over medium heat stirring continuously until custard boils and thickens
5. pour custard into a bowl , cover with plastic wrap pushing down onto the top of the custard to prevent a skin from forming and allow to cool

• Preheat oven to 200º C
• roll out pastry to 2-3mm thick using a circle cutter cut out circles the appropriate size to fit your muffin tin
• lightly grease muffin tin and line with the pastry circles making sure to press out all the air from the edges
• fill with the cooled custard and bake until pastry is golden and custard has set

Related articles

• Portuguese Tarts (monsieurwag.com)

Tagged: baking, cooking, Cream, custard, Custard tart, dessert, egg custard, egg yolk, Flour, food photography, Milk, pastry, Recipe, Sucrose, sweet pastry, Tart, vanilla