A British classic - custard tart
- 7 days ago
- 6 min read
"This is not a dessert that can be rushed, either in the execution or the enjoyment." Felicity Cloake
This is sort of a postscript to my look at Delia classics. As I was flipping through her books I came across this in book one of Delia's How to Cook, which she calls Old-fashioned English custard tart. I had such a rush of nostalgia when I saw this picture for we sometimes had them at home. I say 'them' because, of course, you can get individual ones as well as large ones. And the photograph was so beautiful in a brown kind of way. So, first of all I thought I might have a go at one, the next time an appropriate occasion came up, and then I thought I might just write about it, although I thought there was probably not a lot to say other than 'I remember them.' Old-fashioned indeed, and according to Felicity Cloake, hard to find in English bakeries these days.
It's such a humble thing after all - just a set custard sprinkled with nutmeg in a pastry case. But in fact it's actually posh food - both then and now.
Its origins, you see are pretty old - and, moreover, royal. Originally it was called a doucet - a species of tart with a custard filling, sometimes savoury, sometimes sweet. And a sweet version was served as part of the third course at the coronation of Henry IV - shown here - in the 14th century. It was royal because the ingredients - sugar and nutmeg especially were very expensive.
Neil Buttery of Neil Cooks Grigson, tells us:
"There are recipes in English Food that get me very excited indeed and this is one of the most exciting." Neil Buttery/Neil Cooks Grigson
Although he does admit that he overcooked the pastry somewhat and that the taste of Jane Grigson's A coronation doucet was - not all that brilliant - he gave it 4/10 for actual flavour, 10/10 for geeky excitement. So why the excitement? Well because he was delving into history which not only included a lot more about those doucets, but also a lot more about Henry IV - who was not a good guy:
"Not all was bad though. It was during this time that modern English was born. It was quite a strange thing – prior to these years all the texts were written in Latin and then, seemingly out of nowhere, English appeared all fully-formed. One of the key texts that shows this off is ‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Geoffrey Chaucer, who was present at the coronation. Also, Henry’s address was the first to be given in English. So this really was a key part of English history. This is why cooking food from this book can be so exciting – a chance to have a real glimpse into history. You can read books, go look at paintings, or walk around a magnificent cathedral, but EATING something that people once ate has some other connection; a personal connection that can only be achieved with food." Neil Buttery/Neil Cooks Grigson
Which may or may not be true, and we modern people do tend to start out wanting to cook it as it used to be cooked, but just can't help ourselves by fiddling around with it to make it more in keeping with our modern tastes.
What I found most interesting about the royal connection is that Marcus Wareing's version of the Custard tart won the Great British Menu in 2006 which eventually led to it being chosen as dessert for Queen Elizabeth's birthday banquet, and later, chosen as the Remy Martin Best Dessert in 2012. The recipe is published on the Great British Chefs website and also on his own website. Below three pictures of it - from the Great British Chefs, his own website and from Felicity Cloake who cooked it as part of her exploration of cooking The perfect custard tart.
Undeniably posh, although Felicity Cloake said that: "his very rich, buttery pastry is incredibly fragile"
Jeremy Lee - another British top chef - of Quo Vadis - swears by the Custard tarts cooked at Fergus Henderson's St. John restaurant in Camberwell, London. Small ones in this case. The chef there is Justin Gellatly, whom Felicity puts, together with Marcus Wareing, as top of the tree as far as custard tarts are concerned:
"the delicate quiver of both his and Wareing’s decadently creamy tarts sets them far apart from the more robust traditional version. They’re more like a creme brulee in pastry, to be picked at with a silver fork rather than snaffled warm from a paper bag." Felicity Cloake
Her own version of The perfect custard tart shown here is somewhere in the middle I suspect. But I guess that's what happens when you review several different versions - you take the best from each and end up with something that may well be perfect, which includes omitting the most cheffy parts of the process.
And there's the really interesting thing about the English custard tart - and yes - English rather than British - they think it's an East Anglian thing - particularly Cambridge - although the Mancunians dare to put a layer of jam on the bottom. The really interesting thing being that the custard tart exists at the high and bottom end of English food simultaneously. In your local cake shop (if you're lucky) or the supermarket shelves at the bottom end and in eye-wateringly expensive restaurants at the posh end.
So how do the two ends of the spectrum differ? Well I don't really know but I'm guess it's all to do with how you make your pastry, how many eggs, egg yolks you use, and whether you add fancy flavourings other than nutmeg, not to mention various cheffy techniques along the way:
"Grigson infuses her recipe with saffron, Gellatly and [Prue] Leith's vanilla, and [Constance] Spry orange flower water – all excellent possibilities for the curious, but this is one place where my favourite sweet spice, nutmeg, has no equal. Nothing goes better with eggs and it gives the tart a pleasingly freckled top, too." Felicity Cloake
And lots of it, say I, and Delia obviously agrees with that, but some others seem to be pretty spare as in these two more examples from doyens of British baking - Mary Berry's Egg custard tarts and Paul Hollywood's Egg custard tarts/BBC Food plus one Australian - Lorriane Elliot of Not Quite Nigella who serves hers with fruit (as do others) with her Custard tart with nutmeg. But look how smooth the custard is.
There are two elements to the whole thing - the pastry and the filling. Everyone seems to agree that the pastry should be shortcrust, but then, of course, everyone has different ideas of what shortcrust pastry is. Delia for example is the only one who uses a mix of lard and butter for the fat part of the equation and she has no eggs, and no extra flavouring. Others, include eggs and/or egg yolks in varying numbers and they all include a sweetener of some kind - mostly sugar, but sometimes honey or a mix of the two. And some add a spice - generally nutmeg - to the pastry as well as topping the tart, but sometimes vanilla or lemon juice or zest. And that's just the pastry. As to how you bake it - well baking blind seems to be the thing, although some don't. Justin Gellatly tells us “to let your pastry case get a little browner than you think it should be at the blind-baking stage” and the length of time they bake it varies too. Delia adds decorative pastry leaves around the edge of the pastry, some overhang it before baking blind so that, I assume, it doesn't shrink below the top of your tart tin ...
As for the filling - cream - what kind?, cream and milk - how much of each?, even almond milk from some. As to the eggs - from 10 eggs down to a couple plus a couple of yolks. For virtually everyone has a yolk or two for extra richness. Mostly the cream or cream and milk is heated before pouring over the yolks - and the sugar - I almost forgot the sugar. And the degree of sweetness also varies of course although general opinion seems to be that this is a less sweet kind of tart than some.
So there you go - interesting stuff really. Shall I make one? Maybe, but I suspect it won't be Delia's which sounded just a touch too plain - but then again - maybe she's the one that is right and everyone else has fussed and tarted it up. Which would sort of figure.
YEARS GONE BY
August 4
2025 - Lessons from a recipe
2024 - Nothing
2023 - Nothing
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2019 - Peelers and peels
2017 - Shepherd's pie
2016 - Toast
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