Recipe for a French vanilla custard tart?

August 17, 2006 4:24 AM

I'd like a recipe for French vanilla custard tarts.

The Silo Bakery is a Canberra culinary icon. They make good coffee, great bread and amazing tarts. They have a thin, short pastry (not flaky, not crumbly - just crisp and dark golden) and are filled with a kind of baked custard - vanilla, well set but not firm - they might ooze if they were warm, though, pale to golden and creamy. The tarts are flavoured with lemon, or prunes, or apple and rhubarb, or topped with sugar and bruleèd. You can see a (not terribly clear) picture of them at the bakery's website.

What are these tarts called? More importantly, how do I make them at home?

posted by obiwanwasabi to food & drink (3 comments total)

I would guess that the crust is a pate sablée. The pictures remind me a lot of the tarts they sell at City Bakery in New York--Maury Rubin of City Bakery has a book called Book of Tarts that probably has a recipe close to what you're looking for.

Although, erm, you're in Australia so perhaps I'm no help at all.

Sigh. Here's a recipe for Tarte au Citron Meringuée from the book--it's not the vanilla tart you're after but maybe you'd like to attempt the crust.
posted by bcwinters at 7:06 AM on August 17, 2006

This recipe doesn't seem to have the crust you want (but bcwinters may have covered that already). I does have a vanilla custard.

Perhaps you could combine the two.
posted by oddman at 7:18 AM on August 17, 2006

Merci - that pastry looks perfect, and "pate sablée" gives me a search term to work with.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 4:22 PM on August 17, 2006