Bell heather honey custard tart with ginger crème fraîche

Serves 12 Desserts and puddings

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Method

Sweet pastry tart cases

MAKES 3 X 20CM TART CASES

Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla seeds until light and fluffy and almost white in colour. Beat in the eggs one at a time. If the mixture looks like it is going to separate, add a little flour. Fold in the remaining flour in 3 batches and bring together into a dough.

Divide the dough into 3 pieces, then wrap in cling film and chill or freeze until required.

To make a blind-baked tart case, take a piece of dough and roll out to a 25cm circle, 3mm thick. Use it to line a 20cm fluted, loose-bottomed tart tin. Leave to rest, chilled, for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 170C/ 150C Fan/Gas 3. Lay out 2 sheets of cling film to really get into the grooves of the tart case, one on top of the other, and press into the lined tart case. Fill with baking beans or dried haricot beans and bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove the beans and bake for another 5-10 minutes. The pastry should be a pale golden colour and firm to the touch – if the centre is still a little soft, give it another minute or two in the oven.

Once the tart case is baked, make sure that there are no holes (you can patch them up with a little leftover pastry), then brush with a little egg yolk to glaze.

For the tart

To make the ginger crème fraîche, finely grate the stem ginger into the crème fraîche along with a spoonful of the syrup. Combine, then ideally transfer into a muslin cloth bag and hang, chilled, overnight. Leave a bowl underneath to catch excess liquid.

Transfer to an airtight container until you are ready to use.

Warm the cream in a large saucepan over a low heat until it reaches 50C.

Whisk the egg yolks and honey together in a large bowl until combined, then pour over the hot cream, whisking continuously; it should start to thicken slightly. Pass the custard through a fine sieve and leave to rest for 5 minutes. Skim off the layer of foam that will form on top.

Preheat the oven to 110C/90C Fan/Gas 1⁄4. Half-fill the blind- baked tart case with the cooled custard, then carefully transfer to the oven. Bake for 45-60 minutes. You are looking for a slight wobble in the centre of the custard. Leave to rest for a couple of hours before you cut into it.

To serve, slice the tart into wedges and serve with a big spoonful of ginger crème fraîche.