Currants and crème pâtissière tart

When the temperature dropped by a few degrees, I baked a few shortcrust tart shells in advance – so during the heatwave I can avoid the oven and simply fill them with creams and fruit. These bases freeze beautifully, making them perfect for quick desserts whenever you need them. This tart with vanilla custard cream and currants is a deliciously refreshing combination of crisp pastry, smooth cream and tangy fruit. Highly recommended!

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:

• 200 g plain flour
• 90 g cold butter, diced
• 30 g lard*, 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 lard, and rub or chop together quickly until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the icing sugar, salt and cold water, then quickly bring the dough together (you can also use a food processor). Shape into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 – 60 minutes.

Grease a 24 cm tart tin and dust lightly with flour, shaking off any excess. Roll out the chilled pastry to about 3 mm thickness and line the tin. Chill again for 30 minutes. Lightly dust the pastry with flour, line with baking parchment and fill with baking beans (or dried beans/rice).

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Reduce to 200°C, place the tart in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and weights, lower the temperature to 180°C, and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until golden and fully baked. Remove and leave to cool.

Ingredients for the vanilla custard cream (crème pâtissière):

• 300 ml milk
• seeds from ½ a vanilla pod
• 3 large egg yolks
• 50 g sugar
• 20 g plain flour
• 20 g cornflour
• 60 g mascarpone, chilled

In a saucepan, bring the milk and vanilla seeds to the boil, then remove from the heat. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick. Add the flour and cornflour and mix until smooth. Gradually whisk in about 100 ml of the hot milk. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining milk, stir well, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Once boiling, cook for about 1 minute. Remove from the heat and cover the surface with cling film (touching the cream) to prevent a skin forming. Leave to cool completely (do not stir while cooling). The cream can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Once chilled, transfer to a mixing bowl and beat briefly, adding the mascarpone one spoonful at a time until smooth. Spread the custard cream over the cooled tart base and top with fresh currants.

*Lard makes the pastry extra crumbly, but you can replace it with more butter if preferred.

Enjoy!