Blueberry Tart with Cobbler Crust

Custard

Pour 300ml of milk pour into a pan

Add 200ml of double cream to the milk

Scrape the seeds of a vanilla pod into the milk and cream mixture.

Separate 6 eggs keeping the egg yolks (whites can be saved for something else, they freeze well)

Whisk the yolks and add 120g caster sugar, continuously whisking to avoid the sugar curing the egg yolks.

Place pan with cream/milk mixture on the stove and bring to boil.

Once the mixture comes to the boil take it off heat and pour half into the egg yolks and sugar, whisking all of the time so the mixture doesn’t curdle.

Add that mixture to the rest of the cream (It is very important that the pot is off the stove at this point) stir well with a spatula and return to the stove and heat to 82°C (this is the temperature at which the custard starts to thicken and the yolk cooks out).

Once the custard reaches 82°C, immediately strain into a cold bowl to stop it from continuing to cook. If you don’t have a Thermopen, watch for the custard thickening and starting to steam at the edges

Coulis

To make the coulis pour the maple syrup in a pot and bring to just about boiling and add the blueberries.

Leave the maple and blueberries to simmer add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Once the blueberries start to break down, remove from the stove and blitz with a hand processor and pass through a sieve to get rid of seeds and return It to the pan

Tart

Squeeze the juice of the lemon into a ceramic baking dish.

Peel and grate the apples and place in the dish with the lemon juice.

Add in blueberries and mix through with hands.

Add 1.5 tbsp. of corn flour and continue to mix in.

Place the dish in the the oven for about 30 minutes at 180 °C.

Roll out pre made butter puff pastry on a flat baking tray.

Dock the pastry ie. Prick it with a fork to allow steam to escape.

This recipe wants the crumbliness of puff pastry, but we don’t want it to raise.  To stop it from raising place another baking tray on top and blind bake the pastry, in the oven for around 20 minutes at around the same temperature as the berries.

Hand crush the blanched hazelnuts

In a large bowl place the brown and white sugar, crushed hazelnuts, the lemon zest, the flour and butter, all of these ingredients should be at room temperature.

Mix together by hand rubbing in the butter with your fingers.

When it starts to clump together, to a cookie-dough like consistency, that is when it is ready.

Remove the baked berries and puff pastry base from oven and allow to cool down.

Spread the blueberry and apple mixture over the puff pastry base, leaving a slight boarder around the edge.

Crumble the hazelnut crumb over the top of the fruit using your hands.

Pop back in oven, top shelve, for a further 15 minutes.

Once it is golden brown remove from the oven and trim edges for a neat finish then cut into 4 or 6

Slice and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Plate up individual slices and serve with custard and blueberry coulis on the side.  A big dollop of clotted cream and garnish with a sprig of mint. Lightly whipped double cream completes this!

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