Lemon Custard Tart

My custard tarts have been really popular at Gary's work so I decided to try this variation that I found in Annie Bell's Baking Bible. 

The recipe was different from what I was expecting. I thought I'd make a custard and make it lemony, however, this was a liquid until baked in the oven. I guess a baked custard. Anyway, the recipe was again very easy, as I've come to expect from Annie Bell's recipes. 

First step was to make the pastry, this was made by combining all the ingredients in the food processer and then chilling for an hour or so. The pastry is the pressed into a cake tin. This bit was quite challenging because the case needs to be 6cm high but I got there in the end.

Pastry Case

The case was then baked blind and left to cool. 

The custard was made by combining all the ingredients and then pouring into the pastry shell.

Ready to go in the oven

This was then cooked for around 1.30hours and left to cool.

Baked Custard

The verdict: This recipe has produced mixed verdicts. Both Gary and I thought that the tart was nice, however, in places it was very eggy. I think it seperated in the oven and so some areas tasted of just egg whereas others had been nicely combined and tasted really good. The lemon was a nice flavour, not too strong, but no one knew that it had orange in it. My sister and mum thought that it was really nice and happily demolished the whole tart over the weekend. I would give the tart 7/10.

Finished pie and eaten!!

Almond, Apple and Blackberry tart

I've skipped a few chapters in Annie Bell's Baking Bible and ended up choosing something from the tarts and pies chapter. The first recipe in this chapter is Apple and Almond Tart, I decided to alter it slightly and added some blackberries. 

First step is to make the pastry, Annie recommends doing this in a food processor so I used my mixer. Simply cream together butter and sugar. Mix in the egg and finally the flour and ground almonds. Mix till it forms a dough and then wrap and place in the fridge for several hours. 

Wrapped pastry ready for the fridge.

Once the dough is fully chilled roll it out and place in a flan dish. I found the dough didn't hold together at all and kept sticking to the side no matter how much flour I put down so I did this in stages. Rolled a section and placed in the dish. Then added more and more pushing it together with my fingers to form one piece.

Cover in greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans. Place in the oven for 20minutes. I did this stage for too long so my pastry has come out a little too crispy. 

For the filling mix together butter, sugar, ground almonds and plain flour. Add the eggs and mix together throughly. Place this in the cooled pastry case and top with sliced apple and blackberries. 

Place in the oven for 45 minutes, this is longer than the recipe stated but I found mine needed the extra time. The tart should be browned and spring back when touched. Leave to cool, slice and then enjoy!! 

Finished tart

The verdict: The pastry was really lovely, it melted in my mouth and tasted great, and I don't even like pastry!! The filling had quite a strong eggy flavour, I couldn't really taste the almonds and would have liked this to taste stronger. The fruit was really nicely cooked and softened. I enjoyed this enough to want more than my tiny piece (on a diet) and to consider making it again. Next time I'd consider putting in some almond essence to strengthen the flavour. 8/10. 

Bakewell Tart

After taking the mincemeat and almond tart to work, Gary came home with many comments that people were requesting a bakewell tart. One of his collegues is having a BBQ on Wednesday so I decided that our contribution would be a bakewell to keep everyone happy. I did my usual, when looking for a specific recipe, and search on the BBC food website. The bakewell tart I selected is by the hairy bikers and can be found here. 

The tart was very easy to make. The first step was to make the pastry and I just did this in my mixer. It involved mixing together butter, flour, salt, sugar and almonds until they are a breadcrumb mixture. Then add the egg and egg yolks until it forms a dough. This is then chilled for at least 30 minutes. 

Once ready the pastry is the rolled out to cover the dish, pricked and then baked blind in the oven for 15 minutes. 

For the filling mix together the ground almonds and caster sugar and then add the eggs, almond essence and mix it all well. Part of the reason I chose this recipe was the almond essence, I know what a difference that makes to the flavour. 

When the pastry is cool, spread the base with jam (I used strawberry but the recipe states raspberry) and pour the mixture on top. 

Jam filled tart

This is then cooked in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Mine was in there significantly longer than that but this is because I forgot about it whilst doing other things. I'll have to learn to set the timer!! As it turned out it just made the edges a little "crispy" as Gary called it!! 

Slightly "crisp" topped tart

The full view

The verdict: as yet I haven't tried this but will report back the verdict once we've been to the BBQ!! 

Mincemeat and Almond Tart

I decided to make this tart, from Mary Berry's complete cookbook, this week as Gary. It looked like a bakewell tart but with mincemeat instead of jam and I like mincemeat!! 

The first step for the tart involved making a simple short crust pastry. Usual process of mixing butter and flour together then adding egg, sugar and water. This was placed in the fridge to cool for at least 30minutes. 

Pastry made and ready to go in the fridge

Once the pastry had cooled it was rolled and placed in a flan dish and again cooled until ready. 

To make the filling I cream together butter and sugar and then added ground almonds and almond extract. This was all whisked together. 

Almond filling whisked together

The mincemeat was then placed on the bottom of the case and the almond mixture spread on top. This was baked in the oven for around 1 hour until the middle felt solid. This did result in the top getting too brown though so next time I would cover this up. 

Cooling tart

While the tart cooled I made some icing by mixing together icing sugar, lemon juice and water and spread this over the top. I then sprinkled almonds on top. 

The tart was sliced into 10 pieces and then mine was cut in half again which resulted in my slice having 340 calories. So an unhealthy tart then!! 

My slice BEFORE halving.

The verdict: I really enjoyed this tart but mainly because it had mincemeat in it. I was disappointed with the cake mixture as when raw it tasted strongly of almonds, however, once cooked the mincemeat flavour was overwhelming and I couldn't taste it anymore. I would recommend less mincemeat and next time I would just make a standard bakewell tart. I would give it 7/10 as I found the flavour combinations disappointing. I also didn't find the recipe particularly easy to follow and felt that my tart came out too dark and my icing too runny. 

Chocolate and Coffee Flan

This recipe is an old favourite of mine, one that I've revisited over the years, that I love. It's from an old book that my mum used at school, I really enjoy browsing through it and finding all the changes she made to the recipes. My favourite is instead of Chelsea buns, my mum has changed them to Palace buns!! Always makes me smile!! 

Anyway, last week while my mum visited we purchased some baking beans so I've been pondering what recipe to use for their first outing to the oven. I then had the brainwave whilst at my parents over the weekend, I dug out this book and there was the recipe, Chocolate and Coffee flan. What I also like about this recipe is it uses ingredients that I always have so I can make it whenever it takes my fancy!!

The first step is to make the pastry base, this just involves mixing flour and butter to breadcrumbs and then adding a little water so it makes a dough. I placed this in the fridge for around 30 minutes and then rolled it out and placed it in the flan dish. Covered it with greaseproof paper and then filled with my new beans and baked for 20 minutes. 

Pastry case ready to go in the oven

Once that was done I prepared the mixture for inside the tart. Cornflour, cocoa and coffee are added to a small quantity of milk and mixed to a paste. Meanwhile the remaining milk is heating to boiling, take off the heat and mix in the paste, back on the heat till boiling and the mixture will start to thicken. At this point add some sugar to the mixture and stir it in, the mixture will continue to thicken and turn glossy. 

Chocolate and coffee mixture, thickening up nicely

Then pour this mixture into the flan dish and leave to cool. As it cools it will continue to thicken up and then it's ready. 

Mixture poured in and cooling down

The recipe states that you can decorate the top with nuts or chocolate but I personally find this unnecessary, it gets eaten pretty quickly anyway, so just leave it looking lovely and rich dark chocolate. Yummy!!

Me and my husband are not great fans of coffee, in fact neither of us like it, but adding it to this recipe adds a nice bitterness to the sweet chocolate. I don't find the flavour too strong and I like the balance. If I was making it purely for him I would omit the coffee all together.