Lovely Elise of Simply Recipes selected custards for this month’s “Sugar High Fridays” theme. I know that I am not a big fan of custards. Still I wanted to give it a try. Why not? How I felt about certain foods changed with time and may be with the recipe I selected, I might like it. You never know until you try. So, I baked mini custard tarts.
The recipe is simple with only 5 ingredients. All Purpose Flour, butter, powered sugar, eggs and milk. Tart shell is made with the first three ingredients and the custard filling is made with the last three ingredients. All basic, nothing fancy sounds easy, right, so I gave it a try!
Recipe: 
1 cup of all purpose flour
4 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of water
To make the dough, sift the all purpose flour into a bowl. Add the powdered sugar, butter and water. Mix and knead to form a smooth, firm dough. Cover and leave to chill in the refrigerator. Meanwhile prepare the custard filling.
Custard:
2 eggs
1/4 cup of powdered sugar
3/4 cup of milk
To make the custard, beat the eggs and sugar together. Gradually add milk and beat until well combined.
Take out the dough from the fridge; divide it into even sized pieces (makes about 6). Flatten the dough pieces into rounds and press into shallow tiny pans. Spoon the custard into the tart shells and cook in a preheated oven at 325° F, for about 30 minutes or until set. Remove the dishes, set aside to cool. To serve, run a knife around the edge of each dish and turn out onto a serving plate. Serve hot or chilled with or without cream.
The outcome looked, smelled and tasted good. But I am not going to go ga-ga over custard anytime soon. I should have baked a cheesecake instead. I read somewhere that cheesecake is also a sort of custard. Yum… that’d be the one I like more!
Take a look at custard and its many avatars at Elise’s Blog .
I also prefer cheesecake. Personally I think custard is better on its own without the pastry case
Comment by Petit — September 16, 2005 @ 9:51 am
Indira- The tarts look great. But I agree with you- I can never eat custard on its own. These tarts will be interesting to try.
Comment by mika — September 16, 2005 @ 11:08 am
I dont like custard in general… but I’ll make an exception for creme caramel 🙂
Comment by shammi — September 16, 2005 @ 5:30 pm
Recipes with such simple, quality ingredients are usually sooooo good! But I always prefer chocolate any time of day! 🙂
Comment by Beth - The Zen Foodist — September 16, 2005 @ 6:13 pm
i love that this recipe is so simple, but seems like it turns out so well! thanks for sharing the recipe 🙂
Comment by tanvi — September 17, 2005 @ 2:28 am
It is a beautiful tart – and how could it be any easier? I think this would lend itself very well to variations, possibly involving cheese or chocolate. =)
Comment by Nic — September 17, 2005 @ 1:16 pm
Petit..my plan is atleast I can have tart shell for my effort if something goes wrong with the custard filling.:)-
Mika, Tanvi… Thanks!
Nic… I agree, I could’ve put more effort like adding some chocolate or atleast some powdered nutmeg or nuts etc.,But the thing that attracted me to this recipe is it’s basic ingredients and simple way it can be made.
Comment by Indira — September 17, 2005 @ 9:23 pm
How can you not love a recipe with so few ingredients. And these in particular look as though they turned out quite deliciously! Thanks so much for joining in on SHF!
Comment by Jennifer — September 21, 2005 @ 1:23 pm
hi,
i tried to make this custard tart 2day.i baked it according to ur instructions..once it turned brown color i removed it from the oven.. still the bottom part of the crust is soft and not cooked.but the top part seems to be brown and its cooked.. if i bake it somemore for the botoom part to cook, the top part will be burnt..wht can i do for this..
Comment by shanthi — December 15, 2005 @ 8:12 am
do i need to roll the dough very thin??
Indira says…
Prebaking the cups without custard for few minutes in the oven helps, Shanthi. Hope this helps.
Comment by shanthi — December 15, 2005 @ 8:14 am
ok, thanks..i’ll try
Comment by shanthi — December 16, 2005 @ 2:06 pm
I’m making these cups as we speak. Very new cook here. They are still liquid although it is several minutes past the baking time, should I leave them in, or are they supposed to look this way in the oven?
Comment by theresa — March 27, 2006 @ 1:38 am
If you have ever watched on TV the BBC series “As Time Goes By” you would understand why Lionel Hardcastle loves “custard tarts” and this recipe is the “tops”
Comment by e Kipp — November 20, 2006 @ 10:40 am
I wonder how I reached your website but once I was there I found it difficult to leave. The plaethora of simple recipes along with easy and crisp instructions just kept me looking for more and more recipes. I am not too much of a foody but a guy who cooks well. I can cook all the basic stuff and want to climb up the ladder now to some advanced cooking. Your website looks like the perfect way to follow for me to achieve my goal. Keep it up!
Comment by Vikas Bhalla — July 16, 2007 @ 3:14 am
only men really understand custard tarts. Why adulterate them with chocolate!
I tried these, made a batch and ate the lot myself!
well done.
Comment by Rodney — August 28, 2007 @ 12:02 am
omg YAY thankyou soo much..im tryin them out now and they are in the oven cookin.
i really hope they work i love custard tarts, in fact i wanted them wen i got home but my mum said the bakers ran out.. im only 13 so im not sure if i followed the instructions properly but thankyou soo much.
and btw i had a LOT of custard left over so i made some more pastry and made extras is this suppose to happen or is mine just retarded??
much love
lisa x3
Comment by Lisa — August 30, 2007 @ 12:52 am
loved it !
JUSTTO MAKE IT BETTER USE GROUDED GINGER
Comment by Lee — October 9, 2007 @ 9:34 pm
That was super yummy!!!!!!!!!! My friends loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by Julia — January 16, 2010 @ 8:21 pm