Try this Yorkshire Custard Pie for Easter
This is a favourite Yorkshire dessert and a traditional dish in the Dales on Easter Sunday. In line with all the recipes in ‘Mrs Halls Cookbook’ it is made with ingredients that were readily available on the farms, in this case milk and eggs are the dominant ingredients.
Custard Pie
Course: DessertServings
8
servingsPrep time
20
minutesCooking time
40
minutesCalories
330
kcalIngredients
- For the pastry
135g White Flour
2.5g Salt
4g Sugar
90g Butter
50-70g ice cold water
- For the Custard Filling
570ml Whole Milk
3 Eggs (Free Range)
50g Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
Sprinkling of Nutmeg
Directions
- Pastry
- Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees
- Mix the flour salt and sugar together in a mixer by pulsing it briefly
- Cube the butter and add half of it to the bowl and pulse for a few seconds
- Add rest of butter and pulse again for a few seconds until the butter is in small pieces
- Gradually add the water bit by bit mixing it each time until it forms clumps
- Knead the mixture until smooth and then press into a small disc and wrap in film and refrigerate for 1/2 hour
- Take out and roll into a large enough disc to fill a 20cm pie dish (about thickness of a £1 coin) leaving enough to go up the sides and over the edge a little. Place in pie dish and trim edges.
- Line pie base with baking paper, cover with baking beans or dried pulses and (blind) bake for 15 mins in until firm. Remove beans and baking paper and cook for 5 mins more until golden brown.
- Custard filling
- Bring milk to boil slowly
- Beat eggs and sugar and Vanilla Essence together and add to the Milk, whisking it until nice and smooth.
- Pour mixture through a sieve into a jug to remove and lumps and
- Put the pastry base on the oven rack and then carefully pour the custard into the base and then slide into the oven without spilling it (as I did first time round – messy).
- Cook for 10 mins at 220 degrees then lower heat to 180 degrees and cook for another 30 mins until set.
- Carefully take out of the oven and after resting for a few minutes grate nutmeg over the top, or use ground nutmeg.
Notes
- Blind baking (Baking pastry without the filling) helps make sure the base doesn’t get too soggy
- If you don’t have whole milk then try substituting some of the milk with cream. I did this, 2/3 milk, 1/3 cream and it worked fine.
- Don’t try and pour the mixture in the pastry and then carrying it to the oven – I did that and made a mess of the oven. Pour it in while the pastry is on the oven rack and carefully slide it in.
- Let it cool or refrigerate before eating – i think a nice dollop of cream to go with it might complement it nicely.
I originally tried the recipe mentioned in ‘The Best of James Herriot’ book (see below) which was ok but the pastry went a bit soggy so I adapted it and came up with the above recipe but try it yourself and see what you think.
