WeekendBase

This very popular in Italy tart, makes delicious and refreshing after dinner dessert or an extraordinary breakfast treat.

INGREDIENTS:

for shortcrust pastry:

• 200g plain flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 tblsp icing sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
  

for pastry cream:

• 4 egg yolks
• 100g caster sugar
• 25g flour
• 300ml milk
• 1tsp vanilla essence or 1 vanilla pod

PREPARING SHORTCRUST PASTRY:

1. Place the flour, icing sugar and butter in a food processor (I use pizza-dough setting on my bread maker) and whiz until they resemble breadcrumbs. Add 3/4 of beaten egg and continue to whiz. With your hands form the ball and flatten it until it is about 2.5cm thick. Wrap it in the cling film and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.2. Chilled pastry can be now rolled out to fit the size of your baking tin. The pastry should not be thicker than 4mm. Even less thick if you use small tins (for tartlets).3. Transfer rolled out pastry in to the tin.4. Line the pastry with greaseproof paper and fill it in with baking beans. I found that parchment paper works best. If you don’t have to, try not to use thin-foil, as it doesn’t allow the pastry to “breath”. I don’t have professional baking beans, so instead I use (and reuse) dried beans and peas. They also work!5. Now you are ready to bake “blind”. Bake in a 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit)  for 25 minutes.

6. Remove the beans and the paper. Brush with leftover beaten egg and return to the oven for another 2-3 minutes.PREPARING PASTRY CREAM:

1. Bring milk slowly just up to the boiling point. If you are using vanilla pod rather than vanilla essence, score it and place it in the saucepan together with milk. Remove the pod when milk is ready to use in step 4.

2. In the meantime, whisk the egg yolks with sugar until they are light and thick. 3. Add the flour and mix well.4. Pour hot milk over the mixture, whisk well and return to the pan.5. Stir constantly over medium heat and bring it to boil. Do not stop stiring as it will get lumpy. Remove it from the heat and add vanilla essence.4. Cover with cling film to prevent forming the skin and allow to cool down.

FINISHING TOUCHES:

Spread evenly cold pastry cream onto the base and decorate with fresh fruit of your choice. I like to use strawberries, grapes, raspberries (oh yes…) and  blueberries. Refrigerate before you serve.

Enjoy!