Marcus Wareing recently replaced Roux boy as a judge in Masterchef The Professionals. I’m a fan, though he seems to be a bit too nice for the moment, maybe he’s just warming up and his proper, strict- self will emerge soon. The night before he made a custard tart that was one of the desserts on The Queen’s 80th birthday banquet. Lots of useful, cheffy tips, I tried to remember them all while checking on iPlayer, as I baked.  I also personalized it a little, as always.

For the sweet shortcrust pastry I used 115 g of plain flour, 75 g of cold butter, 35 g of caster sugar, a zest of one lemon and 1 whole egg. Kitchen Aid worked it into a nice dough and it rested in the fridge for about an hour.

Thinly rolled and placed in my medium tart case, with pastry overflowing in case it shrunk, it blind baked for about 15 minutes in 170 degrees. For blind baking I used rice in cling film, for the first time ever, as, according to Marcus, rice fills in all those little gaps on the edges and makes the pastry base lovely and even. After 15 minutes I brushed the whole inside of the case with beaten egg yolk, to prevent any leaking of the custard- another cheffy thing I picked up. While that baked slowly, I made the custard out of 5 egg yolks, 35 g of caster sugar and 250 ml of whipping cream- new, I’d have used double cream, but I did as I was told. I also added some vanilla paste, unlike Marcus, for me custard simply must have those little vanilla seeds and the flavour. Once strained, I poured it into the case, liberally sprinkled some freshly ground nutmeg and baked for 30 minutes in 130 degrees.

Then left to cool and set  in the room temperature for 2 hours.

Of course it doesn’t look as stunning as Marcus’s, but it wobbles and tastes great.  And will be done again.