Alex's Egg Custard Tarts

Ingredients

1 recipe pate-sablee-french-shortcrust
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp (80g) white sugar
1/3 cup (150g) warm water
2/3 cup (75g) evaporated milk
2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla

top with mandarin oranges

Preheat oven to 400° F and position rack in lower third of oven.

Completely dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Roll out the pastry dough to 12 x 12 inches and cut out 9 circles using a 4 inch cookie cutter. Gently press onto tart tins or ramekins and place on baking sheet.

Whisk the eggs, egg yolk, evaporated milk and vanilla together. Stir in the room temperature sugar solution. Strain the egg mixture into a large measuring cup through a fine sieve. Carefully pour into tart shells, filling to just below the rim.

Bake at 400° F for 10-15 minutes until the edges are lightly brown. Please keep an eye on the tarts as they are baking. As soon as the custard starts to puff, you need to open the oven door 2-3 inches to prevent the filling from puffing up too much and collapsing when cooled. (Alex found this wasn't necessary.)

Once the edges start to brown, reduce the heat to 350F and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the custard is done. You can test the filling by inserting a toothpick into the custard, if it can stand on its own, it’s done.

Linne Tart & Pastry Crust

This is a fantastic, buttery crust.  Not quite suitable for quiche's, but great for a tart or pie.  Not flaky, more granular, shortbread-like.

Ingredients

1 cups (130 g) all purpose flour
1 small egg
1/2 tsp. salt (skip if using salted butter)
1 tsp. sugar (for sweet recipes, otherwise skip)
1 stick unsalted butter
1/4 cup (~60 ml) sour cream (full fat, NOT light sour cream)

Method

Oven @ 350° F.  It doesn't need pre-baking and works fine baking all at once.  Put all the ingredients for the crust into a bowl and mix with a pastry blender until you have a firm, doughy consistency.  You can chill for 20 minutes, but its not really necessary.  Roll out and press into either a 10 inch spring-form cake pan or a equal sized tart pan.  If you use smaller than 10 inches, you'll get a thicker crust.

Linne Butter Tart

Ingredients

Pastry crust

Filling

1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 pinches of salt
1 egg
3 tbsp sour cream
3 tbsp flour

Top with pitted cherries, or nuts, raisins, etc.

Method

Cream butter and sugar and salt, blend in the egg, sour cream and sift in the flour.

Bake at 375° F for 24 minutes.