Talk to me about heaven. I bet there's a custard tart there somewhere. Simple pleasures for simple beings like me.
Ingredients. Serves 8. Or me, on my own
For the pastry
140g Butter, cold and cut into chunks
250g Plain Flour
Zest of 1 Lemon
100g Golden Caster Sugar
1 Egg
1 tbsp Whole Milk
For the custard
250ml Double Cream
250ml Milk
1 Vanilla Pod, sliced lengthways
1 strip lemon peel
2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
8 Egg Yolks
100g Golden Caster Sugar
Method
1. Put the flour and butter into your food processor and pulse until you get fine breadcrumbs, but don't over do it. Add the sugar, zest and egg and pulse again until you get a nice dough. Add the milk if needed
2. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about the thickness of a £1 coin and big enough to line a 20cm pie tin. It's best to leave a bit of an overhang, this gets lopped off later. Now chill in the fridge for 30 minutes
3. While the pastry is chilling, heat the oven to 160 degree (fan). Line the pastry case with baking paper and baking beans and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the paper and beans and give it another 5 minutes to brown the base. Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 120 degree (fan)
4. Heat the cream and milk gently with the zest, vanilla pod and nutmeg until it's almost boiling. At the same time, beat the sugar and eggs in a large bowl until light and well combined. Now steadily add the cream mixture to the egg mixture, stirring constantly as you go. Strain to remove the peel and vanilla pod
5. Pour the creamy egg mixture into the pastry case. I find it best if you pull out the oven shelf and sit the case on that before you fill it, it makes adding to the oven much easier as the filling will be very liquidy
6. Liberally sprinkle the top with more ground nutmeg and bake for 40 minutes until set but the centre still has a gentle wobble. When its ready, remove from the oven and trim off any excess pastry you may have
7. Allow to cool for best results then dive nn in!
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