Orange & Lemon Custard Tart
With a glut of oranges in my fruit bowl and not being around, so no chance to eat them all, I couldn’t bear the thought of them going to waste.
So, with a couple of lemons added and my trusty pantry ingredients of castor sugar, flour and eggs, this Orange & Lemon Custard Tart is what I came up with.
And I’m so glad I did, because it turned out creamy with a gentle tart kick and a smooth velvety mouthfeel.
It may not be the most planned bake I’ve ever done, but my favourite bakes usually aren’t, they usually come from everyday cooking where I’m trying to make something tasty with what I have around me.
That’s exactly what this tart is.
When you bake it, the ratio of the orange to the lemon is pretty much up to you.
Which of the citrus fruits do you have more of or which citrus do you want to be at the forefront of the dish.
Be brave and just go for it, as long as the amount of citrus juice is the same as the recipe, its doesn’t matter if there is more orange or more lemon juice.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
What You Need
Pastry
350g Plain Flour plus extra for dusting and preparing tin.
250g Cold Butter – Cut into cubes
100g Castor Sugar
Margarine or butter to prepare tin
Use a chunk of pastry to ease the pastry into al the corners of the tin
Filling
5 Large Eggs
150ml Double Cream
200ml Orange & Lemon Juice – See Tip Box
140g Castor Sugar
Zest from 2 Fresh Lemons & 2 Fresh Large Oranges
Use Lemons, Oranges and the zest of both
How It’s Done
Prepare the TIn
Rub margarine or butter around the inside of a 23cm loose bottomed tin to coat it– See Tip Box
Once the inside is coated in the margarine, dust the inside with flour so that it’s all covered.
Set it aside until needed.
Heat the oven to 180c
Perfect golden pastry and a smooth custard
Pastry
Place the flour and sugar in the food processor
Give it a whizz to mix it up
Add the butter a piece at a time to the flour mix, and let it keep running until it comes together into a soft dough
Remove from the food processor, and spend only 30 seconds to bring it together into a ball with your hands
Wrap the pastry in cling film and set it to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Once it has rested, remove from the fridge.
Dust the work surface with a little flour and roll out the pastry to about the thickness of 3mm
Gently line the tin with the rolled-out pastry, pushing it into all of the tart corners – See Tip Box
Run a sharp knife around the top of the tin to remove the hang over pastry
Set it back into the fridge for 30 minutes to set up
After 30 minutes, remove the tin from the fridge, line the tart cake with non-stick baking parchment
Pour in some baking beans or uncooked dry rice.
Place the tin onto a baking tray, and into the hot oven to bake for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, remove the parchment and baking beans and return the tart tin on the tray, into the oven for another 10 minutes – See Tip Box
Once the tart base is a pale golden brown, remove it from the oven and let the pastry case cool for 5 minutes before adding the filling for baking.
Blind bake the pastry case
Filling
Zest the fruit and set the zest aside
Juice the fresh oranges and lemons.
Pour the juice through a sieve to remove all of the pulp and pips.
Do this until there is 200ml of the combined orange and lemon juice
Add the zest of the fruit to the juice and mix to combine
In a separate bowl or large jug, add the double cream, eggs and castor sugar.
Use a hand whisk and whisk gently just to break up the eggs and mix everything together.
Pour the fruit juice into the egg mixture and give it another mix
Set it aside in the fridge until needed
One slice or two?
Cooking
Once the Pastry has cooled for 5 minutes, to allow it to set up a little, place the tart tin on an oven tray and take it to the hot oven
Open the oven door, put the tray halfway into the oven
Pour the mixture into the tart shell, as full as possible
Gently slide the tray into the oven and close the door
Let it bake for 30-40 minutes until the custard has risen and set, but there is still a small wobble in the centre – See Tip Box
Remove it from the oven and let it sit and cool on the tray.
Let the tart cool in the tin, and once completely cool, gently remove from the tin onto a serving plate.
The perfect slice
Tip Box
Prepare Tin – When rubbing margarine around the inside of the tin, make sure to get it into all of the crevasses and with the flour, make sure there is a dusting all over the inside, to avoid the pastry sticking to the tin.
Roll Out Pastry – To get the pastry to go into all parts of the tin, roll a leftover piece of pastry into a ball, and use this to press the pastry into the tin
The Rise of the tart – Because the tart is a custard base, it will rise during cooking, but as it cools, it will fall back into the pastry case.
All ovens are different so adjust baking ties accordingly
A slice of citrus cream heaven
