Let’s Start Again …..

Let’s start with this clementine curd tart.

The pastry is from Dan Lepard and Richard Whittington Exceptional Cakes and the curd is just a regular fruit curd. I made two mistakes when making the curd – I didn’t use enough eggs and  I didn’t use enough eggs and I cooked the curd in a bowl on top of a pan of boiling water when actually, as long as you keep an eye on it and stir it, you can make it in the saucepan. So my curd wasn’t very thick – I sorted it by reheating it in a saucepan and cooking it for longer over a direct heat and adding two whole eggs.

But do you know what, I actually made it, I fixed it when it went wrong (the curd was very sloppy), and now I am putting it on my blog which has been somewhat neglected for a while …..

The tart was very, very good. It didn’t need clementine slices round the edge, they just got in the way.

Pastry: 500g plain flour, 150g caster sugar 100g ground almonds, 380g butter (chilled and diced), 1 egg +2 egg yolks, 1/2 tsp lemon zest, 1tsp run and a pinch of salt. This makes 2 25cm tart bases.

Whizz the flour, sugar and almonds in a food processor, add the butter and process until it looks like breadcrumbs, add the eggs, zest, rum and salt and work into a ball. Remove from the food processor and shape into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 2 hours. Cut the pastry in half and roll out  each half between two sheets of baking paper and place in two tart tins. line the cases with baking paper and weigh down with ceramic beads or coins and bake the cases for 15 minutes at 190C. remove the paper and beads and bake  for another 15 minutes at 150C. You can also freeze the second tart case before you bake it and then just cook it from frozen.

Curd: 5 egg yolks and 2 eggs (I might just use 5 whole eggs next time), 100ml clementine juice, 3/4 cup of sugar, 1.5 oz butter, little bit of lemon juice.

To make the curd, mix the eggs, sugar and juice in a pan and gently heat while stirring until thickened. Add in the cubed butter. Let it cook before making the tart.

Bake the pastry case. Spoon in the curd. Refrigerate. Eat.