Ingredients
- For the pastry175g plain flour, sifted
- 50g icing sugar
- 100g very cold butter, cut into cubes
- 1 egg yolk, plus a tbsp of iced water
- For the filling454g/1lb Christmas pudding
- 2 large free range eggs, plus two extra yolks
- 75g caster sugar
- 450ml cream
- Half a vanilla pod (split lengthways and seeds scraped out)
An all-in-one Christmas pud and custard in a tart. Served with a large dollop of cream as an absolutely delicious dessert for Christmas day as well as an excellent way to tart up left over Christmas pudding – pardon the pun!
Lightly butter a 23cm/9in tart tin and put it in the fridge. Put the flour, and icing sugar in a food processor and aerate with a couple of quick on/off pulses. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and some water (if necessary) and process until the pastry just draws together.
Turn it out on to a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly to form a flat round. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill for at least 20 minutes before rolling out. Chill the tart tin, too.
Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees/gas 5. Roll the pastry out to a round at least five centimetres (two inches) larger than the tin. Wrap the pastry around the rolling pin, lift into place and unroll loosely over the tin. Gently lift and press the pastry into the tin to line, then roll the rolling pin over the top of the tin to trim off the excess pastry.
Line the chilled pastry case with baking parchment, fill with baking beans and bake for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the beans and paper and cook for another 10 minutes or a little longer, until it is a light biscuit brown colour.
Turn down the oven temperature to 140 degrees/gas 1.
For the filling: break up the Christmas pudding into chunks and spread over the base of the tart. Whisk the two whole eggs, the extra yolks and the sugar in a heatproof bowl over simmering water, with a metal whisk, until smooth. Set aside.
Put the cream into a medium saucepan. Stir the split vanilla pod and seeds into the cream. Heat the liquid gently until hot but not boiling, stirring regularly. Slowly stir this into the egg mixture until thoroughly combined. Pour the custard into the pastry case. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes, or until only just set. The custard should still be fairly wobbly in the middle, as it will continue to set as it cools.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting and serving. Serve with softly whipped cream.
