Gooseberry and Elderflower Tart

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •23cm loose-bottomed tart tin
• •Rolling pin
• •Baking parchment and baking beans
• •Wide saucepan
• •Whisk and sieve

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the pastry

   Tip the flour, icing sugar and salt into a bowl. Add the cubed butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Don't overwork it. You want flecks of butter still visible. Add the egg yolk and a tablespoon of cold water and bring it together with a fork, adding more water a teaspoon at a time until the dough just holds. Press it into a flat disc, wrap it, and put it in the fridge for at least half an hour.

   Cold hands, cold butter, cold water. Pastry rewards a cool kitchen and punishes a warm one. If your hands run hot, run them under the cold tap first.
2. 2

   Soften the gooseberries

   Put the gooseberries into a wide saucepan with the caster sugar and three tablespoons of the elderflower cordial. Set over a gentle heat and stir now and then. You're not making jam. You want the berries to soften and split, releasing their sharp green juices, but still hold some of their shape. This takes five minutes, no more. Take them off the heat and let them cool. They'll smell of something between a cooking apple and a meadow.

3. 3

   Blind bake the case

   Heat the oven to 180C fan. Roll the chilled pastry out on a lightly floured surface to about the thickness of a pound coin. Lift it carefully into a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin, pressing it gently into the corners and leaving a small overhang. Prick the base with a fork, line with parchment, and fill with baking beans. Bake for 15 minutes, then lift out the parchment and beans and bake for another 8 to 10 minutes until the base is dry and the rim is pale gold. Trim the overhang with a sharp knife.

   Don't skip the blind baking. A soggy pastry base under wet fruit is the small tragedy of every undercooked tart. Get the case dry and crisp before anything wet goes near it.
4. 4

   Make the custard

   In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the cream, the tablespoon of flour, the lemon zest and the remaining tablespoon of elderflower cordial. The mixture should be smooth and pale, like the inside of a primrose. Strain it through a sieve if you want it really fine, but you don't have to.

5. 5

   Fill and bake

   Drain the cooled gooseberries from any excess syrup, holding back a couple of spoonfuls of the juice for brushing later. Spoon the berries evenly across the pastry base. Pour the custard slowly over the top, letting it settle around the fruit. Scatter a teaspoon of caster sugar across the surface. Slide the tart carefully into the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the custard is set with the faintest wobble at the centre and the top has caught a few golden freckles. Trust your nose. When the kitchen smells of warm cream and something faintly floral, you're close.

6. 6

   Cool and finish

   Let the tart cool in the tin for at least half an hour before lifting it out. It's best eaten warm rather than hot, or at room temperature later in the afternoon. Brush the surface with a little of the reserved gooseberry syrup for shine, and tuck a fresh elderflower head or two on top if you've got them. A jug of cold cream alongside. Nothing more.

Chef Tips

• •Pick green, hard gooseberries rather than the pink dessert sort. The green ones are sharper and hold their shape better when cooked, which is what you want here. Save the pink ones for eating out of hand.
• •If you can find fresh elderflowers, infuse a couple of heads in the warmed cream before making the custard. Strain them out before adding the eggs. It deepens the flavour without making it cloying. Cordial alone is fine, though, and easier.
• •This tart is best on the day it's made, when the pastry is still crisp and the custard still has its delicate set. It will keep until the next day in the fridge, but the pastry softens and you lose something. Make it for an evening when you know it'll be eaten.

Advance Preparation

• •The pastry can be made up to two days ahead and kept wrapped in the fridge, or frozen for up to a month. Bring it back to a workable temperature before rolling.
• •The pastry case can be blind baked a few hours ahead and left at room temperature, ready to fill.
• •The gooseberries can be softened the night before and kept covered in the fridge. Bring them back to room temperature before assembling.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 170g)