The 90th Bake: The Tropical Manchester Tart

This one took a while, Luis’ Signature Bake.  I had to make the pastry first, then blind bake it, make the custard, double boil that, then pour it into the pastry case and bake!!!!  That sounded quick, it wasn’t.  It was a delicious bake though filled with yummy things like rum and grated lime zest, grated orange zest and pureed mango!  Mmmmmm delicious and fresh. It would make a great Christmas dessert. And here’s the recipe https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/tropical_manchester_tart_55667

I was feeling bright and fresh as I got up to go to the last market of the year to sell my wares yesterday morning, until I smashed the car into the house backing out!  And I hadn’t even had any custard! That put me in a very upset and grumpy mood.  Then I heard on the radio about a woman coping with her 7 year old daughter diagnosed with leukemia and a woman slipped outside the market in front of me and had to be taken to hospital, and I thought, you know what, we’re lucky, it’s just a car.  There are people coping with a lot this Christmas.

By chance on the way home, I listened to the good old Band Aid track from 1984 organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure which was raising money for anti-famine efforts in Ethiopia. Great idea that was. Love that song. Have a listen 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjQzJAKxTrE.

So for this bake, I made the pastry which involved adding butter to

the flour and icing sugar in a food processor and pulsing until the fine bread crumb stage.  I tipped the mixture into a large bowl and added egg yolks and water, then mixed with my hands, until it bound, and kneaded into a smooth dough.  I lined the tart case, then pricked the pastry with a fork and cooled it in the fridge until it was ready to blind bake.  I brushed this baked pastry case with egg yolk and cooked until golden brown.  For the custard, I broke 10 eggs into a heat proof mixing bowl, with the finely grated zest of oranges and lime and caster sugar.  I pureed the mango and added this. Unfortunately, I didn’t have passion fruit but that would have given the tart another zing, so just had to add the orange juice, rum and cream.  I set the bowl over a pan of simmering water until the mixture reached 55˚C, then tipped it into a jug and poured the custard into the flan tin in the oven.  I baked this for 50 minutes.  It came out wobbly and delicious.

With the left-over pastry I made Christmas biscuits, and with the left-over custard I cooked it on the stove top (woops might have turned it into scrambled egg mixture, but it still tasted great). We ate the biscuits with custard topping, cream, mango puree and fruit for dessert!  It’s always fun to have Christmas biscuits, angels, bells and stars in the house and they are fun to make and decorate with kids. I love that activity. 🙂 Short bread biscuits with custard or sweetened cream cheese and berries on top make an excellent easy summer festive dessert.