Great British Bake Off: can we make egg custard tarts?
This week’s Bake Off episode saw almost everyone fail at making a batch of humble egg custard tarts. Lovefood’s Charlotte decided to find out just how hard this so-called ‘technical challenge' really is.
There’s only one time of the year when I look forward to Tuesdays more than Saturdays – Great British Bake Off season. Nothing comes between me and the telly during that 8-9pm slot, and so far I haven’t been disappointed with GBBO series four. Mel and Sue are on form as ever, there’s a good mix of contestants, and we still get a slice of food history with every episode.
But when it comes to the ‘technical challenge’ (which involves following a half-finished recipe written by Mary Berry or Paul Hollywood), the majority of bakers stumble. Take this week’s ‘pies and tarts’ episode, for example: only Beca and Frances managed a decent batch of egg custard tarts in the two-hour time limit, and even then Mary Berry criticised Beca’s for being “too small”.
All that trouble over 12 little tarts, made from fewer than ten ingredients? Some have already questioned the abilities of this year’s Bake Off contestants, and although I find such criticism overly harsh, I did doubt the difficulty of making this recipe. And so on Thursday I took to the lovefood studio kitchen with Paul Hollywood’s recipe (albeit the full one) to see if I could out-tart the Bake Off bakers.
Two hours sounds like ages, but when you minus the cooking time (25 minutes), cooling time (30 minutes), and resting time for the pastry (30 minutes), that leaves you with half an hour or so to make both the custard and sweet shortcrust. I whizzed about the kitchen like a madwoman, but even then it took 20 minutes to transform chilled butter, flour, ground almonds and sugar into a breadcrumby mix, and then make that into a blob of pastry with the addition of one egg.
The recipe – and remember, I had the full one to hand, whereas the Bake Off contestants were only allowed a vague set of instructions – said to wait until the pastry had rested 30 minutes before making the custard, but I was already running out of time. Ignoring Mr Hollywood’s advice, I made the custard as soon as the pastry was in the fridge, warming a pan of milk and adding it slowly to a bowl of beaten egg yolks and sugar. It’s easy to make a runny custard and if you don’t know the basic method involved (which was omitted from the recipe given to the bakers), then you’re probably not worthy of a place on Bake Off.
My pastry was slightly sticky and so the worktop surface needed a generous dusting of flour to keep it together. But other than that, everything went fairly smoothly – the pastry rolled out nicely and I got 12 circles from it, which fitted snugly in my muffin tray. I admit to stealing a top tip from Bake Off contestant Ruby along the way: she lined each muffin hole with a ‘wing’ of greaseproof paper for the pastry to sit on top of; that way, you can easily remove the tarts when they’re done.
I gently poured my custard (which seemed fine, despite making it too early) into each pastry cup, and finished the lot off with a generous sprinkling of nutmeg. The oven had been pre-heating for 15 minutes, with a large baking sheet inside it – I figured that immediately sitting my muffin tray on top of a red hot surface would help cook the pastry through. The last thing I wanted was soggy bottoms.
The tarts baked at a scorching 200C for the first 10-15 minutes, an essential step for ensuring golden pastry. This, I think, must have been where most of the bakers went wrong – the majority would have automatically set the oven for 180°C, and just left it at that. That’s enough to cook the custard, but not intense enough to keep soggy bottoms at bay.
With just over half an hour to spare, my tarts were ready to come out. They’d slightly domed in the oven (a sign that the custard was baked) and, I must say, looked rather lovely. I had time to tidy the kitchen up while they were cooling. When lovefood editor Andrew came to inspect my tarts at the end of the two-hour limit, he complimented me on my golden-brown pastry, lack of soggy bottoms, and perfect wobble to the custard filling. Although we agreed that perhaps next time the pastry could be a touch thinner.
I therefore conclude that it is fairly easy to produce a dozen egg custard tarts in two hours. For experienced amateur bakers, like those on GBBO, it should be a doddle. But then again, they didn’t have the advantage of the whole recipe. I would expect them to know how to make a custard by heart, but what about the all-important oven temperature details? Should we expect them to figure that out too? Perhaps under the pressure of being in the Bake Off tent, I too would have forgotten…
Are you a Bake Off fan? How do you rate the standard of this year’s contestants? Could you whip up a dozen egg custard tarts with no problems? Talk to us in the Comments box below.
You might also like
Comments
Be the first to comment
Do you want to comment on this article? You need to be signed in for this feature