Pastry week on the Great British Bake Off saw Paull Hollywood set custard tarts as the technical challenge and I thought I would give them a go, seeing as I have never attempted them before!
I own Paul's cookbook which has the recipe in, and it can also be found on the GBBO website. These two recipes vary slightly - in the book Paul doesn't make the rough puff pastry but uses shop bought (which I would normally do.) This being a Bake Off challenge though I decided to use the recipe they followed in the tent. The result - delicious buttery pastry filled with golden creamy custard. I ate 3 in one sitting! The tarts are quite fiddly and leaving the pastry to cool between rolling is essential to get the decent lamination and signature swirl on the bottom, so you will need to set aside a good couple of hours in total.
As a side note, I found that I had a lot of left over custard - either I didn't make my tarts big enough or the recipe is rather generous with the portions. Next time I will reduce the custard ingredients by a third. You can make the custard whilst the dough is chilling in the fridge if you want to save some time.
One very useful bit of kit that you should have before starting these is a sugar thermometer as the recipe is quite precise for the state the sugar needs to be in. I picked mine up from Amazon, handy next day delivery.
Ingredients:
150g plain flour
Pinch of salt
25g cubed chilled butter
4 - 6 tablespoons of water
60g of frozen then grated butter
375ml milk
45g plain flour
1 cinnamon stick
185ml water
375g caster sugar
7 large egg yolks
Method:
Making the pastry ( if using shop bought skip ahead to the custard):
Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl, then rub in the cubes of butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add water gradually until this forms a dough (4 - 6 tablespoons).
Roll the dough into a rectangle then grate the frozen butter over the bottom two thirds. Fold the top third down then the bottom third up like a letter.
Rotate the dough 90 degrees, roll and repeat the process of adding the butter and folding.
Wrap the dough in cling film and put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Repeat the roll and fold process twice more, then chill for another 20 minutes.
Roll the pastry onto a floured surface into rectangle approximately the size of an A4 piece of paper. Roll tightly from the short side then cut into 12 rounds.
Place a round into the cup of a muffin tin, swirl side up, then using damp fingers press the pastry up the sides of the tin. I found a swirling method worked best for this. Repeat for the rest of the pastry then chill for 20 minutes.
Making the custard:
Pour the milk into a pan then whisk in the flour. Add the cinnamon stick then bring to a simmer. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes until thick then remove from the heat.
Tip the sugar and water into a pan then boil until the syrup reaches 106 - 112C. Gradually whisk the syrup into the milk mixture.
Place the egg yolks into a bowl and strain over the milk mix to remove any lumps and beat well. Cover with cling film (this stops a skin forming on the custard) and leave until cold.
Assembling the tarts:
Preheat the over to 240C. Remove the cinnamon stick then pour the custard onto the cases until almost full. Bake for 15 minutes until you have the classic mottled top appearance.
Leave to cool fully on a wire rack - they taste best when completely cold. These will last a couple of days, if they can be resisted for that long!
I own Paul's cookbook which has the recipe in, and it can also be found on the GBBO website. These two recipes vary slightly - in the book Paul doesn't make the rough puff pastry but uses shop bought (which I would normally do.) This being a Bake Off challenge though I decided to use the recipe they followed in the tent. The result - delicious buttery pastry filled with golden creamy custard. I ate 3 in one sitting! The tarts are quite fiddly and leaving the pastry to cool between rolling is essential to get the decent lamination and signature swirl on the bottom, so you will need to set aside a good couple of hours in total.
As a side note, I found that I had a lot of left over custard - either I didn't make my tarts big enough or the recipe is rather generous with the portions. Next time I will reduce the custard ingredients by a third. You can make the custard whilst the dough is chilling in the fridge if you want to save some time.
One very useful bit of kit that you should have before starting these is a sugar thermometer as the recipe is quite precise for the state the sugar needs to be in. I picked mine up from Amazon, handy next day delivery.
Ingredients:
150g plain flour
Pinch of salt
25g cubed chilled butter
4 - 6 tablespoons of water
60g of frozen then grated butter
375ml milk
45g plain flour
1 cinnamon stick
185ml water
375g caster sugar
7 large egg yolks
Method:
Making the pastry ( if using shop bought skip ahead to the custard):
Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl, then rub in the cubes of butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add water gradually until this forms a dough (4 - 6 tablespoons).
Roll the dough into a rectangle then grate the frozen butter over the bottom two thirds. Fold the top third down then the bottom third up like a letter.
Rotate the dough 90 degrees, roll and repeat the process of adding the butter and folding.
Wrap the dough in cling film and put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Repeat the roll and fold process twice more, then chill for another 20 minutes.
Roll the pastry onto a floured surface into rectangle approximately the size of an A4 piece of paper. Roll tightly from the short side then cut into 12 rounds.
Place a round into the cup of a muffin tin, swirl side up, then using damp fingers press the pastry up the sides of the tin. I found a swirling method worked best for this. Repeat for the rest of the pastry then chill for 20 minutes.
Making the custard:
Pour the milk into a pan then whisk in the flour. Add the cinnamon stick then bring to a simmer. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes until thick then remove from the heat.
Tip the sugar and water into a pan then boil until the syrup reaches 106 - 112C. Gradually whisk the syrup into the milk mixture.
Place the egg yolks into a bowl and strain over the milk mix to remove any lumps and beat well. Cover with cling film (this stops a skin forming on the custard) and leave until cold.
Assembling the tarts:
Preheat the over to 240C. Remove the cinnamon stick then pour the custard onto the cases until almost full. Bake for 15 minutes until you have the classic mottled top appearance.
Leave to cool fully on a wire rack - they taste best when completely cold. These will last a couple of days, if they can be resisted for that long!
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