Gluten Free: Custard Tart

I must be an advertiser's dream, any suggestion of food and I'm craving it for days. Siany caught me out twice this week, once with a mention of chicken wings and, last friday, with custard tarts. The desire for custard tart wouldn't go away. I had do do something about it, so I got to work.

I'd never made custard tart before, I was always a bit worried about the custard leaking out and baking on the floor of the oven (which is currently covered in exploded sweet potato, who'd have thought they'd burst with such energy?). The thing is, as I've said before, gluten free pastry is actually much more forgiving than normal pastry so you can roll, re-roll and generally play about with it as much as you like without losing the shortness that pastry needs, patching up cracked pastry is no problem. As much as I love Portuguese custard tarts, they're made with puff pastry. You can't buy ready made gluten free puff pastry and I'm far too hungry to spend the day rolling and folding butter into my pastry, so I tried to recreate the flavours in a more traditional custard tart.

Custard Tart
You'll need:

• 300g gluten free shortcrust pastry (Dietary Specials do a good one or try this recipe)
• 300ml double cream
• 100ml whole mllk
• 4 duck egg yolks 
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• ½ tsp grated nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• zest of an orange

Make it!

1. Preheat your oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6
2. Roll the pastry out between two sheets of baking paper to about 2mm thick. Line a 20cm tart tin (or a cake tin with a removable base) with the pastry.
3. Cover the pastry with some baking paper and weigh it down with baking beans (dried beans or rice work too) and bake blind for 10 minutes.
4. Remove the tart case from the oven and lift the baking paper and beans out. If there are any holes of cracks in the pastry you can fill them in with any scraps of leftover pastry you have.
5. Turn the oven down to 150°C/300°F/gas mark 2.
6. Heat the cream and milk in a saucepan until it just starts to bubble. 
7. Whisk the duck egg yolks, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and orange zest together and slowly add the hot cream and milk, whisking all the time.
8. Pour the mixture into the pastry case and return to the oven for 45-55 minute. The custard will be golden on top and gently set.
9. Leave to cool to room temperature before slicing.

You can get duck eggs in most farm shops, delis and supermarkets, but if you can't find them, use 5 regular egg yolks.