Plum Pie with White Chocolate Custard
Shortcrust pastry
Ingredients:
300g plain flour
150g unsalted butter
75g cold water
1.5g salt
38g caster sugar
23g egg yolk
Method:
This method makes a pie pastry which is quite crumbly in texture.
Start by cubing your cold butter and pulse it in a food processor with the flour until it forms fine crumbs (it should only take about 5 pulses) . tip the dough into a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. at this stage I like to use my hands to form a dough. press it into a flat square, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Prepare a pie tin by greasing the sides and lining the base with baking paper. Cut off 1/3 of the chilled pastry and set it aside for the lattice. Roll out the rest of the pastry so it’s big enough to line your pie tin, carefully lift and lower it into the corners. Trim off any excess pastry, prick the base with a fork and return it to the fridge to rest again for about 20 minutes.
Roll out the lattice pastry to about 3mm thickness, cut the pastry into 1/2 inch strips, you should get about 10 strips (shorter lengths can be used for the edges) transfer to a board and keep refrigerated until final assembly.
Preheat your oven to 170C, we’re going to blind bake the base. Grab some baking paper that’s larger than your pie, scrunch it up and unscrunch it, press it into the pie base and pour in some dry rice, legumes or baking beads. Bake the pastry for about 12 minutes, remove the paper and allow it to bake for a further 8 minutes or until lightly golden and cooked through.
White Chocolate Custard
Ingredients:
300g milk
200g cream
10g vanilla extract
40g cornflour
100g caster sugar
40g (2) egg yolks
50g unsalted butter
80g white chocolate
Method:
Heat milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan. Meanwhile, whisk together cornflour and sugar and add the egg yolks, whisk to combine. Pour the hot milk into the eggs, quickly whisking to combine, return the mix to the pan and cook on a medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. The custard will thicken, continue whisking and allow it to boil for 1 minute. remove from the heat, add in the butter, one cube at a time, stirring well in between each addition. Finally, add the white chocolate and allow it to melt into the warm custard. At this point I like to use a stick blender to emulsify the custard while it’s still warm. This will give it the ultimate shine and mouthfeel! Transfer the custard into the baked tart shell and set aside while we prepare the plums.
Final Assembly
Ingredients:
800g plums
80g icing sugar
Tart shell with custard
Pastry for lattice
1 egg, beaten
Method:
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Slice the plums into whichever shape you like, toss them with the sugar, mound them up on top of the custard. Line strips of pastry parallell across the tart, lightly brush the pastry with egg. Line pastry strips in an offset orientation across the tart, apply egg wash. Bake the tart for approximately 45 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown on top.
Enjoy it warm or cold. This tart will keep for up to 4 days in the frige.