Manchester Tart

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •23cm loose-bottomed tart tin
• •Rolling pin
• •Baking parchment and baking beans (or dried pulses)
• •Heavy-bottomed saucepan
• •Whisk and wooden spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the pastry

   Tip the flour, butter and sugar into a bowl. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until it looks like rough breadcrumbs with the odd larger flake of butter still visible. Those flakes are a good thing. Stir in the egg yolk and just enough cold water to bring it together into a shaggy dough. Don't work it. The less you handle pastry, the kinder it is to you. Press into a flat disc, wrap, and chill for at least thirty minutes.

   Cold hands, cold butter, cold water. Pastry hates warmth. If your kitchen is hot, run your wrists under the cold tap before you start.
2. 2

   Roll and line the tin

   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, easing it into the corners without stretching. Stretched pastry shrinks back and breaks your heart. Trim the edges, prick the base all over with a fork, and chill again for twenty minutes while the oven heats.

3. 3

   Blind bake the case

   Set the oven to 190C/170C fan. Line the chilled pastry case with baking parchment and fill with baking beans or dried pulses. Bake for fifteen minutes, then lift out the parchment and beans and return the case to the oven for another eight to ten minutes until the base is dry and pale gold. It should look like sand, not bread. Let it cool completely in the tin.

   If the base puffs up, press it gently flat with the back of a spoon while it's still warm. A flat base holds the jam and custard the way you want them held.
4. 4

   Spread the jam

   Warm the jam in a small pan over a low heat for a minute or two, just until it loosens. Spread it across the cool pastry base in a generous, even layer. Right to the edges. The jam is not a hint here, it's the bottom note of the whole tart, and meanness with it is the most common mistake people make.

5. 5

   Make the custard

   Pour the milk into a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into the milk and drop the pod in too. Bring it slowly to just below a simmer, then take it off the heat and let it sit for ten minutes to infuse. In a separate bowl, whisk the yolks with the sugar and cornflour until pale and thick, the colour of clotted cream.

   If you're using vanilla extract instead of a pod, leave it out at this stage and stir it in at the very end. Heat dulls extract.
6. 6

   Cook the custard

   Fish out the vanilla pod. Pour the warm milk slowly onto the yolk mixture, whisking the whole time, then return it all to the pan. Set it over a medium heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, getting into the corners. It will thicken suddenly, somewhere between two and four minutes. The moment it does, keep stirring for another thirty seconds so the cornflour cooks out, then take it off the heat. Stir in the butter until it melts in. The custard should coat the back of a spoon thickly, the kind of thick that holds a line if you draw a finger through it.

7. 7

   Fill the tart

   Pour the hot custard over the jam, gently, working from the centre outwards. Smooth the top with the back of a spoon. Tap the tin once on the worktop to settle it. Let it cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least three hours, or overnight if you can. The custard sets as it cools, going from soft and pourable to a sliceable, silky disc.

8. 8

   Coconut and cherries

   Just before serving, scatter the desiccated coconut generously across the top. Don't be shy. The coconut is half the point. Press it down very lightly with a clean palm so it sticks. Dot the cherries around the edge or one in the centre, however you remember it. Slice with a hot knife wiped clean between cuts.

Chef Tips

• •The jam matters more than you think. A good raspberry jam with proper fruit and a sharp note is the difference between a tart that tastes of something and one that tastes of sweetness alone. If you've made jam yourself in the summer, this is the place for it.
• •Make the custard with real vanilla if you can. A pod is best, extract is fine, the little bottles of vanilla flavouring are not worth the shelf space. Custard is mostly milk and yolks; the vanilla is what tells you it was made with care.
• •Resist the urge to use sweetened coconut. The desiccated unsweetened sort gives texture and a clean, slightly nutty edge that cuts through the custard. Sweetened coconut tips the whole thing into cloying.
• •Make it the day before. The custard sets properly overnight, the flavours settle, and you get to eat pudding without having spent the afternoon making it. Most good puddings reward patience like this.

Advance Preparation

• •The pastry can be made up to three days ahead and kept wrapped in the fridge, or frozen for up to a month.
• •The blind-baked pastry case can be made a day ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature.
• •The whole tart is better made the day before serving. It needs at least three hours in the fridge to set properly, and overnight is better. Add the coconut and cherries just before serving so the coconut stays dry and snowy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 140g)