Custard and Cinnamon Tart

After making the Coconut Cream Pie, I thought I would give the Custard and Cinnamon Tart a go. This is another recipe that requires me to make a dough as the base and this one made me a little more than frustrated.

Used my hands again to rub together the flour and butter until they got to a crumb like consistency and then mixed in the sugar and egg with a spoon. Once it started to come together as a dough it is kneaded before being covered in clingfilm and left to settle in the fridge for 30 minutes. then the nightmare of trying to get the dough rolled out to the right thickness without it either getting stuck to the work surface or falling apart when lifted into the tin began. It took me several attempts and even once I had managed to press it into the tin I had to do a little patching up to make sure the sides were high enough to hold the filling.

Back into the fridge again and then straight into the oven to bake blind for 12 minutes. I still haven't got round to purchasing any baking beans so used uncooked rice again on the grease proof paper. Then, once these have been removed, the base goes into the oven again or 15 minutes to golden in colour. Whilst it was in for the second time I started warming the milk up to boiling point and getting the other custard filling ingredients into a thick paste. Did need to add a little more milk than suggested to loosen it. The paste gets added to the boiling milk, reducing the temperature and keep cooking until the flour is cooked throughly  and it basically looks like a custard. mine got a little lumpy as I was stirring it rather than whisking which is what the recipe states but even after the butter had been added I still couldn't get rid of the lumpy texture.

The warm mixture has the stiff egg whites folded into it then this all goes into the tin and into the fridge to be left to set overnight. I tried a slice of tart after lunch on Monday and realised after I has cut into it that I had actually run out of cinnamon so had to try it without. After getting over the odd texture, not helped by the lumps I failed to remove it was actually a nice dessert. The base is lovely, not too hard or crumbly and went well with the creamy custard on top I managed to pick up some ground cinnamon the next day and tried it again as it is meant to be. It definately added something having that dusted over the slice. Next time I am going to whisk it to get it a little smoother and that might not be as off putting when you first bite into it.