Bastille Day: French Custard Tart

These beautiful individual French tarts, based on a recipe by Jane Price, are perfect for a Bastille Day Treat. They are themed red, white and blue which are the colours of the French flag. The pastry is not too thick, sweet or heavy and is accompanied with an amazing and subtle vanilla custard. I can't describe how delicious they are; all I know is that there will be a lot more custard style tarts in my baking future! This recipe makes 8 individual tarts, for 1 large tart simply halve all the ingredients.

Ingredients for Pastry
250g plain flour
180g chilled butter, cubed
4 tablespoons icing sugar
4 tablespoons chilled water

Ingredients for Custard Filling
6 egg yolks
4 tablespoons caster sugar
4 tablespoons cornflour
2 cups milk (I used skim milk)
2 tsp vanilla essence
+ fruit for decoration (your choice, or theme it red and blue berry-fruit)
+ 2 spoonful apricot jam

Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan-forced). Grease your individual tins or 1 tart tin. Make the pastry by sifting the flour into a bowl. With a wooden spoon mix the butter cubes through the flour until the butter is covered. Transfer to a food processor and slowly, and carefully, process the mixture until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Alternatively, this step can be done with fingers. Then, mix in the icing sugar. Make a well in the centre and add the water. Take a spatula and use a cutting action until the mixture comes together. Add a drop more water if necessary, but ensure its chilled. Roll out the pastry between two sheets of cling film. Line your tins with the pastry, reusing the cut away pastry until you have none left. Refridgerate your 8, pastry lined, tins for 20 minutes. After this, line the tins with baking paper and spread baking beads or uncooked rice evenly over the paper. Bake for 15 minutes, remove the paper and beads/rice and bake for another 15 minutes, or until golden.
To make the filling, put the yolks, sugar and cornflour in a bowl and whisk until pale. Heat the milk in a saucepan until almost boiling, then remove from the heat and add gradually to the egg mixture; beating constantly. Strain back into the pan. Stir constantly over low heat for 4 minutes, or until the mixture boils and thickens. Do not over cook. Remove from the heat, and add the vanilla and stir through well. Immediately pour the custard filling into the cool pastry shell and top with your choice of fruit eg. strawberries, raspberries or blueberries. Melt the apricot jam over low heat, and gently brush a slightly cooled, thin, layer of jam over the fruit (only the fruit not the custard). Allow to set by cooling in the fridge before serving.