Brown Sugar, Coffee, Chocolate Custard Tart

Isn’t she just a beauty?! There’s something so satisfying and pleasing about a clean slice of custard tart. This tart looks simple but packs in a lot of technique and flavour. The pastry has to be evenly lined and perfectly baked to give a lovely texture contrast to the rich, creamy filling. The custard starts by infusing crushed coffee beans into the cream for a deep roasted flavour before pouring it over melted brown sugar. Once its been tempered into the eggs, it gets a little helping of luxurious dark chocolate to finish.

None of the flavours overpower each other in this, they just dance along together in harmony encased in a silky custard.

Ingredients - makes one 9-inch fluted tart
Chocolate Sweet Pastry:
130g unsalted butter, cubed and softened
85g icing sugar, sieved
1/2 tsp salt
10g cocoa powder
235g strong flour
50g eggs (approx. 1 medium egg)

Custard:
750g double cream
30g crushed coffee beans
190g egg yolks
100g dark soft brown sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
80g good-quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces (plus extra for the top)

Notes on the recipe: I prefer to make this tart over two days. I make the pastry the day before and then roll, chill and blind bake it the next day before baking the custard inside. It can be made in one day if you just want the tart in the evening, or you’d like to prep ahead.

Method
For the pastry; place all of the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer, apart from the eggs, fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low for a few minutes until the butter has been rubbed into the dry ingredients and it resembles breadcrumbs. Add in the eggs and mix on low until it comes together in a dough. Flatten the pastry in to a disc, wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (although an overnight rest is preferred).

Prepare your fluted tart tin by greasing it with butter and lining the bottom with baking paper. Once the pastry has chilled, remove the it from the fridge and knead it a little on a lightly floured worktop until pliable. Roll the pastry until it’s a few inches bigger than the tin and approx. 3mm thick. Roll the pastry over your rolling pin and unroll it over the prepared baking tin. Press the pastry into the corners and sides before trimming any excess off the top edge. Place in the freezer for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven to 175°C.

While you wait for the oven to preheat, you can infuse the cream for the custard. Place the double cream in a saucepan with the crushed coffee beans. Heat on low until the cream just comes to a simmer. Remove from the heat, cover with clingfilm and leave to infuse at room temperature for 1 hour.

Once the oven is preheated, place a large piece of crumpled baking paper into the lined tin and fill it with baking beans until it is completely full. This is important so that the tart shell doesn’t shrink in the oven. Bake for approx. 25 minutes until the pastry is nearly fully baked. Remove the baking beans and paper and bake for another 5-10 minutes until the pastry is cooked through. It will be dry to the touch. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Once the cream for your custard has infused, strain out the coffee beans. Pour the infused cream back into the pan and re-warm until hot but not boiling. Place the brown sugar into a second pan and heat on low until melted. Nudge the sugar every so often with a wooden spoon to stop it from catching. Don’t stir it or it may crystalise. Once the sugar has melted, carefully pour over the hot cream a little at a time. Be careful here as it is extremely hot. Whisk the mixture together and reheat on low to dissolve any hard sugar. Temper the hot cream over the egg yolks by gradually pouring it over the eggs while whisking. Once all of the liquid has been added, add in the salt and chocolate. Leave the chocolate to melt for 5 minutes before whisking together. Strain the custard into a jug.

Turn your oven down to 130°C. Place your tart onto another baking tray to make it easy to move when it’s filled with custard. Pour the custard mixture into the blind baked tart until it reaches the top. Carefully transfer it into the oven and bake for approx. 40 minutes, or until the middle has a very slight jiggle. Be careful as you don’t want to overbake your custard tart! Leave to cool to room temperature and chill for at least 3 hours.

Once chilled, remove the custard tart from the tin and grate over a generous layer of dark chocolate. Cut with a hot knife and enjoy!