A wonderful tart filled with vanilla custard and gooseberries. It combines my current favourite shortcrust pastry with creamy custard and tart gooseberries for a perfectly balanced dessert. Enjoy this wonderfully old-fashioned fruit while it’s in season and make the most of it in desserts and bakes – its season is all too short!
Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:
- 200 g plain flour
- 120 g butter, cold and diced
- 60 g icing sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 2–3 tablespoons cold water
Sift the flour into a bowl, add the butter and rub together quickly until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the icing sugar, salt and water, then quickly knead into a dough (or pulse in a food processor). Shape into a ball, flatten slightly, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour.
Grease a 24 cm tart tin with butter and dust lightly with flour, shaking out any excess. Roll out the chilled pastry to about 3 mm thick and line the tin with it. Chill again for 30 minutes. Dust the pastry lightly with flour, line with baking paper and fill with baking beans, dried beans or rice.
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Reduce the temperature to 200°C and blind-bake the pastry for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and weights, reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake for a further 10–15 minutes, until the pastry is golden and fully baked. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.
Ingredients for the filling:
- 1 packet vanilla custard powder with sugar (for 500 ml milk)
- 450 ml milk
- 450 g gooseberries
- 2 tablespoons sugar
Prepare the custard according to the packet instructions, but use only 450 ml of milk instead of 500 ml. Pour the hot custard onto the cooled tart shell, spread evenly and leave to cool.
Top and tail the gooseberries and wash them. Spread them over a baking tray lined with baking paper and sprinkle with the sugar. Bake at 180°C for approximately 15–20 minutes, until softened. Drain off the juices (they won’t be needed for the tart), then place the gooseberries on kitchen paper to dry and cool. Arrange the cooled gooseberries over the cooled custard and serve.
You can decorate the tart with little meringues if you wish, though this is entirely optional.
Enjoy!
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