Custard Tart with Sweet French Pastry Crust

Ever since I wrapped up the final edits on the cookbook, I found that I had been laboring under the weight of a heavy bias. The bias was this: I have created recipes for everything that I would like to make, and that I would like others to be able to make. I found myself assuming that further creativity would be perceived as too fancy or too precious. Too self-serving. And since I felt so strongly that I wanted to do the right thing by you, my lovely reader, it seemed only fair to stop there.

You see, all the recipes in my cookbook are truly my recipes, in the sense that I make them all the time. They are the whole of my regular rotation, my repertoire. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to assemble them into a cookbook so that, should something happen to me, my husband’s new wife could cook for my children (I can be very macabre, I know, and now that I think about it, a bit sexist; it’s just that I can’t see my husband being a father to the kids and also cooking and baking for them).

But, lately, I have found myself getting bored with my repertoire. And then I realized that maybe you are, too — or may become bored. So if the first hurdle to  cooking and baking gluten-free is feeling confident of your own competence in the kitchen, the second hurdle is boredom.

So the hell with boredom. I punch boredom in the face. Let’s make some Custard Tart with Sweet French Pastry Crust.

This one is a yeast crust, so it needs to rise – but I promise you it’s worth the trouble. A regular sweet pie crust is basically bits of freezing cold butter surrounded by flour. The flakiness in the crust is the result of the ice cold butter’s hitting the super hot oven, expanding and puffing out the flour. On the other hand, French pastry crust calls for warm butter, warm milk, and yeast. It’s like Bizarro Crust.

Inside the tart is a classic, creamy, and lightly sweet mixture of milk and eggs that bakes up all nice and smooth and delicate.

Sweet French Pastry Crust
MAKES ENOUGH CRUST FOR ONE 9-INCH TART

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour, plus extra for dusting
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 pinch kosher salt
3 tablespoons superfine sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk (low-fat is fine, nonfat is not), about 100 degrees F
1 extra-large egg white

1. In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum and salt, and mix to combine. Add the sugar and yeast, then the egg yolks and butter to the flour mixture, and cut in the butter until it is evenly distributed throughout the flour mixture. You can use a pastry blender to do this, two knives in a cutting motion (like you’re cutting a steak), or you can blend it all with your hands.

2. Add the milk a few tablespoons at a time and mix with your hands until the mixture begins to hold together. You may not need all of the milk. If you add too much, and the dough gets sticky, just add a tablespoon or two of flour to compensate.

3. Once the dough has come together, cover the bowl and place it in a warm, humid spot to allow it to rise until it has risen to less than doubled in volume.

4. Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured flat surface and roll it out until it is about 1/8-inch thick (about the width of a nickel). Like this …

5. Grease a 9-inch tart plate and carefully lift the crust into the plate, concentrating on the center, and working your way out toward the sides. Trim off any excess crust above the rim of the tart plate….

6.  Then, using a pastry brush, brush the entire pie crust with the egg white. This will help prevent the crust from becoming soggy during baking.

7. Pierce the bottom of the crust repeatedly with the tines of a fork to prevent the crust from inflating during baking.

On to the custard filling…

Custard Filling
MAKES ENOUGH FOR ONE 9-INCH TART
Ingredients
3 extra-large eggs, plus 1 extra-large egg yolk
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 pinch kosher salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups milk (low-fat is fine, nonfat is not)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. In a medium size bowl, place the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla, and mix until just combined. Set the bowl aside while we scald the milk.

3. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the milk and butter, and, stirring constantly, bring the milk to a boil. Don’t stop stirring, or the milk will burn and boil over and believe me when I tell you that it’s a mess to clean up. This whole thing should take about 6 or 7 minutes.Then remove it from the heat.

4. Once the milk has scalded, walk the saucepan on over to the egg mixture. Temper the eggs by adding the scalded milk to the egg mixture, a tablespoon at a time, for about, oh, 5 or 6 tablespoons, whisking constantly. Next, begin to pour the rest of the milk into the egg mixture, super super slowly, but do not stop whisking.

5. Pour the custard into the prepared crust. The tart plate will be very full. Not to worry – the filling won’t rise during baking.

6. Cover the exposed edges of the crust with aluminum foil to prevent burning. Place the tart in the center of the preheated oven, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil from the crust edges, and bake for another 8 minutes or until the top is golden brown. The custard will still be a bit, for lack of a better word, jiggly.

7. Allow the tart to cool completely, and then chill, before serving. If you get impatient, cool for a few minutes and then put the whole thing in the freezer before serving.

You’ve worked so very hard. Enjoy some custard tart.

This crust can also be made savory by omitting the sugar and adding another pinch of salt. It’s very versatile. I think it’s ruined me for any other crust.

Warmly,
Nicole

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