These can be made at any time of the year, either showcasing the wonderful produce around you or using jams or other stored preserves, reminding us of seasons past and those to come. Finish with any flowers. I used hellebores and edible blossom here (at Wakelyns Bakery) but daffodils are at their best now too. Other edible flowers springing up at the moment are primroses, violets, geraniums and pansies. If you can find buckwheat flour, it adds a great depth of flavour and crunchy-sandy texture to the pastry, which makes really good biscuits too.
Thank you so much, Sarah Lemanski, from beautiful Nova Bakehouse in Leeds, for sharing your honey custard pie recipe on which I based the filling for these.
Ingredients:
Pastry
6.7 ounces cold cubed butter plus extra for greasing
8.8 ounces wholegrain YQ flour, or other wholegrain wheat flour, preferably local and/ or organic
1.8 ounces buckwheat semolina, or use more wholegrain flour
½ tsp sea salt
2.3 ounces golden caster sugar
1 egg, plus 1 extra to seal the pastry shell, whisked
Kefir custard filling
1.2 ounces golden caster sugar
1 tbsp wholegrain YQ flour
¼ tsp sea salt
1 ounce unsalted butter, melted
3.5 ounces local honey – if the honey has set, warm it until runny
2 large eggs
3.4 ounces kefir
3.4 ounces double cream
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
12 tsps jam or seasonal compote
Method:
1. Grease and line a muffin tray
2. Mix the dry ingredients, from the YQ flour to the sugar, together in a mixer. Add the butter and mix until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and keep mixing until it starts to come together, then stop the mixer
3. Roll to the thickness of a $1 coin and cut into 4 inch discs. Carefully shape the discs into the muffin tray by folding the edges a little. It doesn’t matter if the edges overlap. Use any leftover pastry for biscuits or freeze it
4. Chill the pastry shells in the fridge for an hour or overnight. Once chilled, pre-heat the oven to 356 degrees F and blind-back them for 10 minutes. Remove the baking beans and bake for a further 2-5 minutes or until golden brown. Using a pastry brush, seal each shell with a little egg and return to the oven for 1 more minute or to just dry.
5. In the meantime make the custard. Pre-heat the oven to 320 degrees F. In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, flour and sea salt. Whisk in the butter and honey. Add the eggs and whisk well. Add the kefir, cream and vinegar and whisk until creamy and well-combined. Strain the filling through a sieve into a jug.
6. Put 1 tsp of jam into the bottom of each tart shell, then pour the custard mix on top slowly to ensure the jam stays at the bottom of each case
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 18 minutes. After the first 10 minutes, rotate the tray and continue to bake for 8 minutes or until the edges are set and the centre has a little wobble. Leave to just set and enjoy!
