Club recipe: Gypsy Tart

Ingredients

For the sweet pastry:

• 150g Plain flour
• 2 tbsp Icing or caster sugar
• 75g Butter
• One egg yolk
• ½ Teaspoon lemon juice

For the filling:

• 400g Evaporated milk (canned, works better chilled) 
• 350g Muscovado sugar (it is vital you use this type of sugar in the filling)

We will be using a 20cm/8inch tart case and baking beans for this recipe.

Method

1. To start, we will prepare the pastry by mixing the flour and icing sugar in a bowl
2. Add the butter to the mix and rub together lightly with fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs
3. Add the egg yolk, lemon juice and a tablespoon of cold water and work this into the mix until it forms into a dough and gently kneed into a ball (be careful not to overwork the dough)
4. Once this is done, you will just need to wrap it in cling film and place it in the fridge for at least 15 minutes
5. When you are ready to bake the tart casing, pre-heat the oven to 200c/400f/gas mark 6
6. Roll out the pastry to a 3mm thickness and then use it to line the tart case, leave a little excess pastry hanging over the edge (try to keep a little raw pastry spare to repair any cracks, should they appear)
7. Put a layer of parchment paper or tin foil on top of the pastry and pour in your baking beans (if you don’t have any baking beans then you can use uncooked rice or lentils in place of these)
8. Pop the pastry into the oven and allow it to blind bake for 15 minutes
9. Once the time has passed, carefully remove the beans and parchment paper or foil from the pastry and pop it back in the oven to continue to cook until it looks dry and lightly coloured
10. Now time to prepare the filling whilst the pastry is finishing in the oven by whisking the evaporated milk and sugar until the mix turns a coffee colour and has the consistency of whipped cream (we recommend using an electric mixer for a minimum of ten minutes, it is important to get the consistency and colour right)
11. Once the filling is ready and the pastry is cooked, pour the mix into the pastry case and bake this for a further ten minutes
12. Finally, remove from the oven and leave the tart to cool before slicing and serving up. You can use pouring cream or creme fraiche to give your dessert an extra touch.