Sunday bakes - Nostalgic rhubarb and custard tart

Today my friends and I ‘did lunch’. We all brought a dish and I made a rhubarb and custard tart. This isn’t a recipe that I’ve tried before but I always have the most success with new dishes. I’m the queen of beginners luck.

I’m not really following a recipe exactly, so I wrote down what I did as I went along. 

Ingredients

Shortcrust pastry pack

500ml milk

6 egg yolks

4.5oz caster sugar

2oz plain flour

Tbsp. of cubed ginger

2 vanilla pods

Enough rhubarb to cover the top of the tin you will be using

2 tbsp Brown sugar

Method

Roll out the pastry and line the tart tin, leaving extra around the edges because there will be shrinkage. Put in the fridge for half an hour.

Blind bake the pastry in the oven for 15 minutes.

Put the sugar, sifted flour and egg yolks in a bowl and whisk together until smooth.

Heat the milk in a saucepan with the ginger and vanilla and warm until it steams.

Pour into the bowl with the egg mix through a sieve to pull out the pods and ginger, little by little mixing thoroughly before adding more milk. Return to the saucepan and heat gently stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.

Pour the crème patissière into the pastry case and leave to set a little.

While that’s cooling slice the rhubarb into even-sized pieces, place on a baking try and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until it’s softer but still keeping its shape. 

After the tart has cooled a little the custard will be set enough to lay the rhubarb on the top in even rows.

Place in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. 

All that’s left.

It was a beautiful day so we went for a walk up to the top of the common, which is a lovely spot on a sunny afternoon. 

I can only say, it’s not advisable to take a tin containing food smells to a popular dog walking spot. Think the scarab eating section of the mummy, but with dogs, and mud. And at one point a Dalmatian marked his territory on me. It might have been more peaceful if I left the tin behind, but this was such a successful tart that I literally had to fight them off.