JP Food: White chocolate & Vanilla custard tart

From Tallaght, John Paul Kennedy is a self-taught cook with a passion for good old-fashioned home cooking.

This is a very new recipe from the very first winner of the Great British Bake-Off, The Boy who bakes is his social media handle.

I came across this recipe on his Instagram and was immediately compelled to give it a try.

Ingredients: Sweet Pastry

200g plain flour

20g ground almonds

35g icing sugar

¼ teaspoon of fine sea salt

125g cold unsalted butter cubed

½ tablespoon of ice-cold water

1 large egg yolk

Custard Filling: 450ml double cream 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste 10 large egg yolks 125g light brown sugar 150ml strong black coffee (optional)

White Chocolate Glaze: 150g white chocolate 100ml double cream

Method:

1. Firstly, make the pastry by popping all the ingredients into a food processor. Unlike flaky pastry you don’t want to see lumps of butter so blitz until it just about forms a dough. Form into a ball, cover in cling film and pat it down to form a disk and place into the fridge for at least 3 hours or preferably overnight as it makes the pastry easier to work with.
2. Preheat your oven to 210 degrees / 190 fan and on a lightly floured surface rollout the pasty to about 3mm thick and drape carefully into a 9 inch loose bottomed tart tin and trim away any excess. Line with parchment paper and using baking beans or rice blind bake for 20 minutes on a baking tray.
3. Turn down the oven to 120 degrees / 100 fan. for the filing add the double cream, vanilla bean paste and half of the sugar (and coffee if using) to a pot and bring to a gentle simmer. In a separate bowl mixture together the remaining sugar and egg yolks and then pour over the hot cream, whisking constantly to ensure the mixture doesn’t curdle.
4. Place the tart back into the oven, still sitting on the baking tray to make it easier to manoeuvre and carefully pour the custard filling, it should reach the top of the pastry and bake for 80 minutes. You will know the tart is cooked when you give the tart a gentle shake to make sure it jiggles like jelly.
5. Allow to cool for an hour then place back into the fridge to set further. Then make the white chocolate ganache by melting the white chocolate and cream over a low heat in a saucepan.
6. Pour over the cooled tart and pop into the fridge to set fully which will take about three hours.
7. To decorate cut out strips of card and place evenly apart on top of the tart surface and dust with cocoa powder, remove the strips and you are left with a striped pattern on top, serve and enjoy.

This tart looks impressive, tastes delicious and has the wow factor.

Yes, there are a few stages but none of them too complex, but the time and effort are worth it.

I made this for my family, and everybody went back for seconds, and while for a first attempt it was not perfect (we are home bakers) I know I will perfect with more practice.

It is a real patisserie style dessert that looks elegant and inviting to eat.

The proof is always in the eating and while this tart will last for 2-3 days in the fridge it lasted only a day in mine!

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