A very Royal tart

A very Royal tart

A great way to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee, this is a refreshing tart that's easy to make.

Serves 8

Preparation time 40 minutes

Cooking time 20 minutes

Ingredients

175g plain flour

50g sugar

100g butter from Real France

500ml milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100g sugar

7 yolks, eggs from Wyndham House Poultry

50g plain flour

150ml whipping cream

200g blueberries from Chegworth Valley

300g strawberries

Preparation Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.

To make the pastry place the flour, sugar and butter in a large bowl.  Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture is golden and smells delicious.  The final outcome should be a floury mixture with no lumps.

Bring together with 4 tbsp cold water using a round bladed knife, then turn out on to a very lightly floured surface. Knead gently to smooth.

Roll out to fit a 28cm x 20cm flan tin or tray bake tin. It needs to be about 3cm deep.  Line the tin, trimming off the edges to neaten. Prick the base, line with parchment paper and weight down, then bake blind for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and cook for another 5 minutes until crisp.

To make the crème patissiere:

Warm the milk along with the vanilla.  Mix together the egg yolks with the sugar until smooth, then stir in the flour.

When the milk is hot, pour over the egg yolks whisking well, then pour back into the pan. Make sure you get all of the yolk mixture out of the bowl.

Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon and a whisk, too, making sure you get into the edges of the pan. You will need to bring the mixture up to the boil to cook out the flour, just make sure you keep stirring!

When the crème is ready, place a buttered paper or a piece of waxed paper on it’s surface and leave it to cool. Once cold, spoon it into the pastry case, spreading it to make a smooth surface.

Whip the cream until it holds its shape, then spread over the crème patissiere.  Decorate with the blueberries and strawberries whilst singing God Save the Queen!

For a quick alternative filling, mix together 500g marscapone with 50g icing sugar and 1tsp vanilla extract and spread into the pastry case.  Then miss out the whipped cream for the top.