Custard Tarts

Sorry for the silence but I have just finished exams.... so we'll pretend that that is an acceptable excuse....

In my family, custard tarts bought from the supermarket last a total of 30 mins tops. They are just absorbed. But I find that they tend to be quite claggy so thought that perhaps they would be nicer if I made them myself. These are inspired by the recipe in the book, "John Whaite Bakes" but I wasn't sure about how well orange liqueur would go down with my 11 year old brother.

It is made by pouring a creme patisserie in to a rough puff pastry case which are then baked for around half an hour. This recipe has three parts basically, rough puff pastry, custard, combination.

Part 1: Rough Puff Pastry

250g plain flour
250g butter in cubes
1 tsp lemon juice
125-250 ml cold water

Rub some of the butter through the flour but not all of it, leaving a few larger chunks of butter.

Stir the lemon juice in to the water then pour the liquid solution in to the flour bit by bit pushing the mixture in to a ball.

Flour the workshop and place and roll the pastry in to a rectangle about 12cm wide and around 1cm thick. Fold each end towards each other so that they meet in the middle, brush off flour and then fold the two panels together.

Turn the dough a quarter turn and then roll in in to another rectangle as you did at first. Repeat the folds and then chill for 15 minutes. Remove from the fridge, refold the pastry twice and refrigerate until you need it.

Part 2: Custard

4 egg yolks
125g caster sugar
40g cornflour
500ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
25g butter

Whisk the egg yolks and caster sugar in a mixing bowl until the mixture is slightly paler in colour. Add the cornflour and whisk well making sure that there are no lumps remaining.

Then heat the milk and the vanilla extract until the milk is on the point of boiling. Mix half the milk into the egg bowl, whisking continuously until the milk is well combined. Then pour this mixture into the rest of the milk on the heat and whisk constantly until the custard is thick enough to cover the back of a spoon.

Remove from the heat and stir for another minute before adding the butter. Stir until the butter is melted.

Pour until a bowl and let it cool a little bit before covering the bowl with cling film until you are ready to use it.

Part 3: Mixing

Preheat the oven 220 degrees celsius.

Sift a covering of icing sugar on to your work surface and roll out the pastry until it is about 3mm thick. Grease shallow bun tins with butter. Cut out circles of pastry appropriate in size to your tins and line them with pastry. Fill the pastry cases just over half way with the custard.

Place the tarts in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes - watching them carefully so that they don't catch.

Peach Frangipane Tart

We have reached 20 degrees in London!... and I am stuck revising inside...
Did find the time to make a tart though, I got my priorities straight.

The original recipe is in, "The Great British Bake Off: How to Turn Everyday Bakes into Showstoppers". The book is great as it builds up more and more complex recipes around the same theme or ingredient such as sponge or pastry. Perfect for beginners as it becomes more and more extravagant but starts off with the basic recipe.

Anyway it was edited slightly.... First I replaced fresh peaches for tinned ones. Just because it is not quite the time for nice peaches according to my mother... Also I removed the salt because I just don't really think it's necessary, I also made the frangipane my way, but it was basically the same.

Pastry:
200g plain flour
100g unsalted butter
4 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
zest of half a lemon

Filling:
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
zest of a whole lemon
2 eggs
120g ground almonds
80g plain flour
8 halves of tinned peaches - about 1 and half tins.
Flaked almonds to decorate

My brother and mum made the pastry which is a "pate brisee", the ingredients are combined by placing the dry ingredients in a bowl with a well. In the well place the egg yolks, lemon zest and butter. Rub with fingertips so that they crumb. Then roll out and place in a 23cm tart tin and refrigerate while you make the filling. (If you want you can make leaves out of any that remains to serve as a decoration)

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Beat the butter so it is softened and slightly paler in color. Add the sugar and lemon zest and beat again. Add the eggs bit by bit, beating well after each addition. Fold in the ground almonds and flour. When combined well smooth over the pastry.

Decorate the peaches as you wish on the top of the frangipane. I put seven peach halves around the edge of the pastry case with the eighth in the middle. Bake for 25 minutes. Scatter the ground almonds over the top and if you have spare pastry the leaf decor. Bake for a further 25 minutes.

Let cool for a while before attempting to remove from the tin.

Enjoy!

Grace x

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John Whaite Bakes

Tomorrow is the Great British Bake Off quarter final, it is getting serious now! *cue screams*

So in celebration of the fact it is nearly the GBBO quarter final and the woes that I can never enter, I did a selection of bakes from last years winner's book, John Whaite Bakes. 

Also apologies in advance about the picture quality, it is appalling and I don't really know why, except camera troubles. 

I started off by baking his "Simple Strawberry Tart" - as, let's face it summer is coming to a close...or is over altogether. 

The tart is a shortcrust pastry base filled with creme patisserie and then covered in strawberries. It was a sweet and delicious tart which I know that when summer returns, if summer returns, I will definitely be baking this again. It also meant I had to make creme pat for the first time, exciting!

I then attempted to create a plaited loaf. Which soon became two plaits of three strands which is slightly less impressive. For some reason, the dough was a complete and utter failure. And although it tasted ok, the strands didn't become one in the oven and the texture was a bit off. I don't like making bread!

In a quest to find a simple thing to bake I turned to his Caramel Shard Cookies which involves making a simple cookie dough and a slab of caramel, which is smashed. They are then combined, to make a rather dangerous cookie dough mixture. 

The odd thing about this recipe is that they are baked as balls, they are not shaped before they go in to the oven, but suprisingly enough they baked perfectly. 

They were fab and I was eating them for a whole week, the vision of health that I am. 

 Doesn't it look beautiful!

 John Whaite, if you are reading this, your book is gold, I love it. Everyone should buy a copy just for the recipes I have mentioned above, if nothing else.

I cannot wait for Bake Off, as sadly enough, along with Downton Abbey, it is the highlight of my television week.

And with that all that remains to be said is, on your marks, get set, bake!

Mad Hatter Jam Tarts, Brownies and Polka Dot Cookies

Last weekend it was my birthday party so I did a bit of baking in preparation and these were the result.

First, jam tarts which are names "Mad Hatter Jam Tarts" mainly due to the strange way in which the pastry is made. Two eggs are boiled the egg whites are removed and the yolks smashed up and mixed with the normal pastry ingredients. The pastry is left to chill over night and then baked with jam in it. Once out of the oven a raspberry is placed in the middle of the tart as decoration.

I then made polka dot cookies which are basically cookies with Smarties on the top, which adds colour and makes them look more appealing. They are not particularly daring as a recipe but they are chewy and cookie-y, just what they are supposed to be. 

Finally, I made chocolate brownies. This recipe was supposed to have rum and orange juice in it but I decided to leave them out as I didn't want the taste of them. However it didn't impact them that heavily, it did make them a little fudgier which is no bad thing! 

So that was my contribution to my birthday party which was lovely as the whether was so warm and sunny. Great for a barbecue and outdoor film screening.

Perfect. 

Treacle Tart

Treacle Tart is a traditional English pudding and surprisingly enough it doesn't have any actual treacle in it. 

It is a shortcrust pastry filled with a golden syrup, lemon, apple, egg and breadcrumb mixture.

There was a bit of a pastry incident... nothing a bit of first aid couldn't fix....

I had so much mixture I had to make little ones too but I have no pictures of them.

It is very sweet and perfect with cream as it takes away some of the sugary sweetness.

Next Recipe: Carrot Cake