Foodie Bob

Today I will be making a traditional Yorkshire Curd tart with a lemony twist. I already have my own tried and tested recipe for curd tart but when Karen from Lavender and Lovage told me that this month’s “Best of British” challenge was Yorkshire, I knew I had to come up with something a bit special.

Yorkshire Curd Tart with Lemon Curd

The challenge is kindly being sponsored by New World Appliances and each month the challenge moves around the country to showcase the “Best of British”. Have a look at the “Visit the Beautiful and Diverse County of Yorkshire for Great Food and the Best of British” post at Lavender and Lovage to see all the other entries for this month.

Best of British

So onto the recipe…

I always make my curd tarts in an 8″ disposable foil pie tray. It’s the perfect depth – all my “proper” tins are too high.

Firstly, you need to make a pastry base. This is just a basic shortcrust pastry recipe so if you have your own preferred recipe, simply use that instead. I use a food processor as it is much quicker and you can use cold butter so you don’t have to remember to take it out of the fridge!

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:

• 6oz Plain flour
• 3oz Butter (cold, straight from the fridge)
• Cold water
• 1tbsp Caster sugar

I apologise for the the ingredients being in oz’s, I find it’s much easier to work out pastry quantities using oz’s. 6oz is about 170g and 3oz is about 85g.

To Make the pastry:

1. Cut the butter into small cubes
2. Place the butter and flour into a food processor and pulse until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.


Pastry looking like breadcrumbs

3. Next, with the food processor running, slowly dribble in the cold water until it starts coming together.
4. Keep the food processor running until the pastry forms into a rough ball. Don’t over process, it should only take a minute or so.


The pastry comes together to form a ball

5. Form the pastry into a ball, place into a freezer bag and put it into the fridge for about an hour (this lets the pastry relax and makes it more elastic)
6. Remove the pastry from the fridge and on a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out to the correct size
7. Line the tin/tray and put to one side. You don’t need to blind bake the pastry for this recipe

Now you have the pastry made, it’s onto the filling.

If you are feeling adventurous, you can make your own curds (The Hairy Bikers have a good recipe for making your own) but I tend to buy bags of frozen curds from my local farm shop and defrost them the day before.

Ingredients for the filling:

• 8oz (225g) Curds
• 2 Eggs
• 4oz (115g) Caster sugar
• 3oz (85g) Currants
• Small knob of melted butter
• Grated zest of one lemon
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 2tbsp Yorkshire Lemon Curd (see notes at the end)

To Make the filling

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C (Fan oven).
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the curds, currants, nutmeg and lemon zest.


Mix the curds, currants, nutmeg and lemon zest together

3. In a small bowl, gently beat the eggs.
4. Add the beaten eggs, sugar and butter to the large mixing bowl and mix well.


Mix everything together

5. Place 2tbsp of lemon curd on the pastry in the tin and spread out to make an even layer.


Spread the lemon curd

6. Pour the mixture on top of the lemon curd.


Ready to bake!

7. Place in the oven and bake for about 35 minutes, turning it round after about 20 minutes.
8. When it’s cooked it should have a lightly browned top and be firm to the touch.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool


Remove from the oven

Some people like to eat their curd tarts warm, however, I prefer mine cold so once it has cooled completely place it into the fridge.

Lemon curd
For the Lemon curd, you could either make your own, or you could buy a jar and use the rest on your toast or make a Lemon Drizzle cake!

In keeping with the “Best of British” Yorkshire theme, I used the simply gorgeous Lemon Curd from Wolds Cottage Kitchen. At this point I must declare an interest as Wolds Cottage Kitchen is my wife’s company and obviously I am going to say it’s the best Lemon Curd ever!

However, don’t just take my word for it, she has just been awarded 2 Gold Stars for it in the prestigious 2012 Great Taste Awards. 2 Gold starts are only awarded to products which they describe as “Flawless”!

Yorkshire Curd Tart with Wolds Cottage Kitchen Lemon Curd