Gluten free custard tarts

I can remember years ago making a custard tart and my grandma being so impressed, as the pastry hadn’t popped up through the custard. Well, I’m delighted to say there was no pastry peeking where it shouldn’t have been, when I made these delicious gluten free custard tarts.

Perfecting a gluten free custard tart recipe has been a labour of love for me over the past few months. Although, I must be honest there were times I almost gave up. Thankfully, my saving grace was discovering a fabulous ‘no frills’ custard tart/tartlet recipe in my grandma’s Be-Ro Home Recipes booklet. The recipe worked an absolute treat when made with gluten free pastry and I felt a sense of achievement that I’d finally created gluten free custard tarts, that were good enough to tell you about. 

The custard tart recipe from the Be-Ro book, suggests you make 12 tarts. However, the foil tart cases I had in the drawer were small (2.5 inches wide and 2 inches deep), so I ended up with 22. Despite the tarts being small, they were absolutely delicious! If you fancy deeper tarts, grab yourself the larger foil cases or use a muffin tin. You’ll have pastry leftover if you make 12 tarts, but I’m quite sure you will put your leftovers to good use!

Ingredients (makes 12-22 dependant on size) 

Gluten free shortcrust pastry  
Click here for the recipe

For the custard filling 
300ml (½ pint) full cream milk 
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons caster sugar
Grated *nutmeg (freshly grated whole nutmeg, is MUCH more flavoursome than ground nutmeg)

Method

Lightly butter the amount of foil tart cases you’d like to use. As I previously mentioned, you can instead use cupcake/muffin trays; just grease them well, to make it easier to line with pastry and also to remove the tarts once baked. To keep the foil cases in place, I sat them in a shallow bun tin.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4/160C Fan.

Make a batch of gluten free shortcrust pastry. Once made, I find it’s best to cut the pastry in half before rolling out. I prefer not to roll the same piece of pastry too many times. 

Lightly dust a clean work surface with gluten free plain flour and roll out the pastry. Cut out pastry discs, using the appropriately sized fluted cutter. The one I used measured 3 inches. 

Grab a palette or smooth bladed knife and gently lift the pastry discs and place them onto the foil case or muffin trays. Using your fingers gently ease and slide the pastry into place (buttered foil cases make it so much easier to position the pastry). Push the pastry snugly into place and nip and tuck any little gaps or breaks.

Using a fork gently prick the surface of the pastry, without going all the way through.  

Line each pastry tart with a piece of greaseproof paper. Weigh the paper down with baking beans or *rice. 

Pop them into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and whip off the paper and baking beans. If you’ve spot any bubbles in the pastry, press them in gently with your fingers, but be careful not to crack the pastry case. 

To make the custard: pour the milk into a pan, add the sugar and bring to a boil.

Pour the milk onto the beaten eggs and give the mixture a quick whisk. Transfer into a jug.

Fill each pastry case with as much custard mixture as you can.

Finish the tarts with grated nutmeg before transferring them into the oven.

Bake for about 15 minutes (you will need to bake a little longer if you make larger tarts) until the custard has set but there is still a slight wobble. 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely. Once cold, best to cover and pop into the fridge for safe keeping. 

Recipe notes and suggestions:

Gluten free custard tarts can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days. 

The pastry cases can be prepped in advance and can be stored either in the fridge for 24hrs or wrapped and popped into the freezer. 

You will spot that I didn’t sieve my custard mixture. If you’re concerned that there may be rogue egg shell in your custard mixture, then it would be good to sieve it.

The original recipe in the Be-Ro booklet gives you the option of making a large tart. Should you fancy making this instead of small ones, the recipe suggests lining a lightly greased, 7-inch sandwich tin with pastry. Bake blind as above, but for 15 minutes. Fill with the egg custard mixture, grate over the nutmeg, and bake until the custard is set, but with a classic egg custard wobble. 

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Thanks as always for checking out the recipes and things I share. Hoping you love these custard tarts as much as I do!

For now,
Liz x

*Check this product out to ensure no gluten containing ingredients or ‘may contain’ or ‘not suitable’ warnings on the pack. If in doubt, leave it out.