Traditional Egg Custard Tart with a lovely homemade pastry and a very silky smooth filling.

Serve warm or chilled. I love mine chilled! You can also make mini ones in a muffin pan if you prefer!

Traditional Egg Custard Tart is one of my all-time favorite desserts!

It's a great recipe to serve for parties, potlucks, gatherings and also for weekday times.

If you wanted to make mini ones to serve at a party or an Afternoon Tea that would also be perfect!

I think everybody loves an egg custard tart!

It can evoke many childhood memories, and often they are presented as a whole round-shaped tart or as little individual tarts.

No one can argue that this traditional egg custard tart, if it is made correctly, has a silky smooth custard, in contrast to a crispy pastry base.

It's one of the oldest recipes I know and can be found in medieval recipes.

Depending on where in the world you are, this traditional egg custard tart may be also known as a sugar cream pie, custard pie, old fashioned sweet egg pie, or other variations.

As with many recipes, the ingredients may vary from country to country!

The egg custard tart included a shortcrust and puff pastry case filled with a mixture of cream, milk, or broth with eggs, sweeteners such as sugar or honey, and sometimes spices, for example, nutmeg.

Recipes found date back as early as the fourteenth century and can still be recognized as custard tarts today.

I have also made a recipe up to show you how to make your own shortcrust pastry.

Of course, you can buy the shop stuff, but this recipe is easy, cheaper and by far more tasty!

You can make little egg custard tart flans, but make sure you adjust the cooking times.

At the end of the recipe, I'll give you the details of how to make these in a muffin pan if that is what you prefer.

So go on, give it a go! Try out a recipe similar to what our ancient ancestors were crazy about!

So let's get straight to the recipe and see how we make this delicious traditional egg custard tart and please enjoy!

TOP TIPS

1. As with any pastry cases, if you are going to put a 'wet' filling in, then you will need to 'bake blind' first to stop the pastry from going soggy.

No one likes a soggy bottom! I have some instructions in a link below to help you with this if needed.

2. You can use this recipe for Gluten-Free by substituting the flour in the pastry with gluten-free flour.

The photo below is one I made in a disposable foil tray to take to a party. It disappeared very fast!

Prep Time

10 minutes for pastry & 10 minutes for filling

Cook Time

20 minutes for pastry & 35 - 40 minutes for tart

Yield

6 servings

You will need

a flan/quiche dish measuring 23 cm / 9 inch diameter.

Ingredients

6 oz or 170 g Shortcrust pastry. See here to make your own Shortcrust pastry.
3 Tablespoons regular Sugar
4 eggs
1 pint or 2 1/2 cups or 550 ml milk.
Sprinkle of ground or fresh grated nutmeg

Instructions

First things first! Get all your ingredients ready. I like to weigh out and put everything in order of adding into the recipe. If it's all ready, you will whizz through the recipe and NOT forget anything!

Make The Pastry

1.*** If you are using a shop-bought pastry case, skip to the FILLING instructions.   Put the oven on to 190 C, 375 F, Gas 5

2. Make your shortcrust pastry. Click here for instructions.

3. Grease your flan dish & make sure you grease up the sides too. Then roll out the pastry.

4. Place your rolled out pastry into your chosen dish.

Make sure you gently push the sides around the dish and trim any excess pastry.

5. If you see any cracks or missing bits of pastry, use the excess from your trimming to patch these areas.

6. Now you will need to prepare the flan case to take the wet filling. You need to first 'Bake blind' the pastry. See here for more information. You need to bake blind for 20 minutes in the oven.

7. Place in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes (for a 23 cm, 9 inch dish). If using smaller cases, reduce the cooking time.

8. When ready, the flan case should look like the photo on the below left. Say about 70% cooked, and ready for the filling.

9. Once you have baked blind your pastry, you need to get all your filling ingredients ready if you haven't done so already and reduce the oven temperature to 180 C, Gas 4, 350 F

What is baking blind?

The Bake Blind technique is used when you have a 'wet' filling or the filling cooks faster than the pastry.

If you were to simply place the filling onto the raw pastry, the base would never cook properly resulting in a very soggy bottom!

This method is also used if you are putting a ready-cooked filling in the flan case, such as a mousse or chocolate torte which doesn't require any baking.

You can read more about Baking Blind in our guide.

Make The Smooth Egg Custard Filling

1. Prepare custard filling by hand whisking eggs in a mixing bowl.

2. Heat milk & sugar in a pan and bring to the boil.

3. Add the milk to the whisked eggs gradually, stirring as you pour, to prevent the eggs from scrambling.

4. Pass the mixture through a sieve and allow to cool for 15 minutes, or immerse the bowl in cold water in the sink to cool the custard down a little.

5. Carefully pour the mixture into the pastry case and sprinkle some nutmeg on the surface.

6. Place in the oven, after 30 minutes, check if it's done. If the surface of the custard 'wobbles' too much when you move the dish, leave for a further 5 minutes.

See below I made 2 Egg Custard Tarts, one for us and one to take to a party!

When done, leave to cool before removing it from the flan dish

Some like to eat this tart warm, I enjoy it more after it has been chilled for an hour in the fridge.

It is also easier to slice when it has cooled. And there you have our lovely Traditional Egg Custard Tart. Please enjoy!

To make small individual tarts

If you want to make small individual tarts, use a well-greased 12 muffin pan and cut 12 discs of pastry using an 11cm/4½in fluted cutter.

The pastry should overlap the top of the molds by a few millimeters, so that you can crimp the edges if you wish

Add the custard filling to each tart case and put in the oven for 25 minutes.

**NOTE: There is no need to bake blind for small tarts.

Turn the oven down to 350F, 180C for the last 10 minutes of baking.

Allow the tarts to cool in the tin for 30 minutes before carefully removing them.

If you enjoy pastry, we've also got a great tutorial recipe for how to make pie dough using Flaky Pastry. be sure to check it, it's really quick and easy to make

We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our traditional egg custard tart recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Recipe Card