Baking & Afternoon Tea · England-wide

Egg Custard Tart

Name: Egg Custard Tart
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: Serves 8
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: Shortcrust: 225g plain flour, 110g cold butter, 1 tbsp icing sugar, 1 egg yolk, cold water; Custard: 300ml whole milk, 150ml double cream, 4 egg yolks, 60g caster sugar, 1 tsp vanilla; Whole nutmeg, for grating

Silky nutmeg-dusted custard wobbling in crisp pastry — the bakery-counter classic that England has loved since the court of Richard III.

Prep: 30 min
Cook: 40 min
Total: 70 min
Yield: Serves 8
Difficulty: Moderate
Era: Medieval

Ingredients

Shortcrust: 225g plain flour, 110g cold butter, 1 tbsp icing sugar, 1 egg yolk, cold water
Custard: 300ml whole milk, 150ml double cream, 4 egg yolks, 60g caster sugar, 1 tsp vanilla
Whole nutmeg, for grating

Method

Oven180°C350°FFan 160°CGas 4

Line a 20cm flan tin with the pastry; chill 30 minutes.
Blind-bake at 180°C / 350°F for 15 minutes with beans, 5 without. Reduce the oven to 140°C / 285°F (fan 120°C, gas 1).
Warm the milk and cream. Whisk the yolks and sugar; pour on the warm milk, whisking.
Strain into the pastry case and grate nutmeg generously over the top.
Bake 30–35 minutes until just set with a gentle wobble at the centre.
Cool completely before slicing — the custard finishes setting as it stands.

Oven temperatures are given in Celsius, Fahrenheit, fan and gas mark throughout. Quantities are metric, as cooked and written in the UK.