Custard cream + lemon curd tarts

When I was little, I used to love little tarts filled with custard and fruit, covered with a thin layer of jelly. Now that I'm not little anymore, this are bigger versions of those childhood treats, sans the jelly.



The tart shell was nice and crisp, and not overly sweet- a good base for the filling. You can find the recipe here. One recipe portion will make enough crust for about ten 9-cm flan tins, like the ones I used.

For the custard cream:

Ingredients
2 eggs
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp corn flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup whole milk
2 Tbsp pure cream

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, corn flour and vanilla.

Bring milk to a boil, then pour over the egg mixture, whisking continuously.
Set this bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon such that drawing your finger down the back of the spoon leaves a distinct empty streak. Tada! You now have custard.

Whisk the pure cream till almost not pourable-- slightly before the whipped cream stage is reached.
Fold cream into custard and chill before piping.

You can find the lemon curd recipe here. I used a stainless steel, pot, thinking it wouldn't be corroded by the acidic lemon juice. Unfortunately the lemon butter had a metallic taste ("reminds me of oysters", said D), which means it DID corrode after all :( Well it's a good recipe nonetheless, just a little too sweet for my liking- 3/4 the sugar would have done the trick.

.......................................................................................................................................

Just got back to Singapore last week. Home has a better-equipped kitchen but oh, the heat really distracts when you bake! Good to be home anyhows.