Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. With a creamy centre and topped with toasted nuts, it’s easy to crave these tartlets. This dessert, known as a Tarta or Postre de Músico, is a traditional Catalonian recipe. Its origins are thought to be a cake that people would give to street-performing musicians who normally didn’t have time to eat dinner as they were performing all night. But as with many of these things it’s hard to know the real reason behind the name. Some people say it’s so named because the crunchy pastry and toasted nuts make music on your tongue! Whatever the reason, we’re sure that these delicious tartlets will make your mouth water and you’ll hear music from heaven when your try it….or is that taking the analogy a bit too far?!!
PrintCustard Tartlet with Nuts & Fig Jam
- Prep Time: 40 mins
- Cook Time: 50 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Cuisine: Desserts
Ingredients
- 8 sheets brick pastry (feuilles de brick)
- 2 free range eggs, beaten
- 20g butter, melted
- 70g organic brown sugar
- 10g of cornflour
- lemon peel
- 4 tbsp fig jam
- 3 egg yolks
- 250ml of milk
- 250g of mixed nuts (raisins, toasted hazelnuts, toasted almonds, toasted pine nuts)
- 4 tsp agave syrup
Instructions
- On your work surface, lay out your sheets of brick pastry and brush with the beaten egg mixture. This wets the pastry, making it more pliant and easier to shape. Cut your sheets according to the shape of the cake tins you are going to use. Ours were individual muffin tins, 8cm wide x 5 cm high, so we cut our sheets in half. If you can’t find brick pastry then you can use filo pastry although brick pasty is good as it doesn’t break so much while handling and it also crisps up well when cooked in the oven.
- Take 4 muffin tins and brush them with the melted butter. This will make it easier to remove the tartlets from the tins when the pastry is cooked.
- Preheat your oven to 210 C. Whilst your oven is coming to temperature, line your tins with the pastry, using two layers in each to give some thickness. Lightly sprinkle some sugar over the surface of the pastry of each tin. Then place in the oven for 6 to 8 minutes, until the pastry turns golden. Remove from the oven when done and leave to cool.
- Whilst the pastry is cooking, we can prepare the custard filling. Pour 125ml of the milk into a saucepan, adding a slice of lemon peel about 2 cms in thickness. In a mixing bowl, dissolve the cornflour in the remaining milk. Then in another bowl, whisk together your egg yolks and your sugar until the mixture has thickened and turned pale yellow.
- Heat your saucepan of milk and when it starts to boil, remove it from the heat and gradually add your mixture of sugar and egg yolk whilst you continue to stir.
- Once it’s incorporated, remove your lemon peel and put the saucepan back on low heat. It’s important not to have the heat too high or your egg might curdle. Whilst stirring, slowly add the milk with cornflour to your saucepan and continue until your have thick custard. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
- Carefully remove the pastry cases from their tins. Then fill each with some custard, allowing room for a tablespoon of fig jam on the top.
- Finally top with your nut mixture and 1 tsp of agave syrup over each tartlet.
