There are custard tarts and then there are maple syrup custard tarts. This recipe by Alison Roman, the US food writer with a cult following, raises a favourite finale to star status. But there’s a trick to getting the caramelisation right…
RECIPE ALISON ROMAN PHOTOGRAPHS CHRIS BERNABEO
Technical bake.
A BIT ABOUT ALISON Based in Brooklyn, she’s a cook, food writer and internet personality known for her unfussy recipes, many of which have gone viral for good reason: they make excellent use of everyday ingredients. She’s the author of three cookbooks, including the bestselling Nothing Fancy. alisoneroman.com; @alisoneroman
The recipe
Serves 8 Hands-on time 30 min Oven time 50-58 min Specialist kit 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin or springform cake tin
MAKE AHEAD Make the tart case up to 2 days ahead, wrap and chill in the fridge.
For the pastry
• 200g plain flour
• 80g icing sugar
• 1½ tsp salt
• 170g unsalted butter, melted
and cooled slightly
For the filling
• 155g maple syrup, plus extra
to serve
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
(optional)
• 230g double cream
• 1 large free-range egg
• 1 large free-range egg yolk
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• ½ tsp sea salt flakes, plus
extra to serve
• Whipped cream to serve
1 Heat the oven to 160°C fan/gas 4. To make the pastry, combine the flour, icing sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Using your fingers, incorporate the melted butter until you have a crumbly mixture with a texture like Play-Doh. Resist the urge to knead the dough as you don’t want to develop any gluten – that’s when you’ll get a pastry that shrinks on you.
2 Press the dough into the tart or cake tin and use your fingers to work it up the sides. Use a fork or the tip of a knife to lightly prick the top all over. This allows steam to escape during baking and prevents bubbles.
3 Bake the pastry shell for 15-18 minutes or until the bottom is lightly golden brown and the top goes from shiny to opaque (a tell-tale sign it’s baked through). It will get baked again with the filling, so don’t worry too much about the edges being totally golden brown. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely but leave the oven on.
4 To make the filling, pour the → maple syrup into a small saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Cook for 8-10 minutes until it turns from pale golden brown with lots of small, furious bubbles to a dark golden brown with larger, slower bubbles. What you’re doing is evaporating the water in the syrup to concentrate the flavours and caramelise the sugars. The smell should never be wholly ‘caramel’, but more like the most intense maple syrup you’ve ever smelled (see right).
5 Once the maple syrup has reached the d
