Butterscotch Tart

Our butterscotch tart, like our apple pie has two components. The pastry and the butterscotch filling.

First let's make the pastry.

Ingredients for the pastry are:
(1 cup = 250ml)
2 cups of self raising flour (not plain flour)
2/3 cup of cornflour
2/3 cup of butter
1/3 cup of sugar
1 x 50gram egg
2 tablespoons of milk

First, put 1/3 of a cup of sugar, 2/3 of a cup of  butter and an egg into a large bowl and beat thoroughly with an electric mix master.

Once these ingredients have been mixed together, add 2 cups of self raising flour, 2/3 of a cup of cornflour and 2 tablespoons of milk to the existing mix.

Then mix all ingredients with the mix master.

As you can see, the final product is quite dry and resembles bread dough. 

Knead the dough together much like you would with bread dough until you have a large single mass.

Now until you make the butterscotch fill, you can keep the pastry mix for a short period of time. Best kept in the fridge if you don't have time to make the whole tart in one go.
Simply wrap it in glad wrap or cellophane to stop it from drying out too much.

Break a piece of the pastry off and knead it much like you would knead bread, flattening it out to your desired pastry thickness. Working with a sprinkling of flour stops the pastry from sticking to your hands and the surface you're working on.

To achieve the optimum thickness it's easiest to use a rolling pin to flatten out the pastry.

Then roll the pastry up over the rolling pin and place in a well greased baking tray.

Repeat this process of breaking off pieces of pastry and rolling them flat.

If the pastry begins to stick to the working surface then sprinkle some more flour.

The idea is to completely cover the inside of the baking tray with pastry, making sure there are no gaps between the pastry and baking tray.

You'll notice that when making a tart we use a round baking tray rather than a rectangle shaped tray. There is no specific reason for this other than tarts traditionally are round and being round in shape may make them easier to cut into pieces. Or it may be tarts look better round! Who knows for sure!

Next put the pasty base in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius and bake until slightly brown in color.

Now onto the tart fill.

First thing to do is place 2 tablespoons of coconut into a fry pan and gently heat on the stove.

This will cook the coconut and turn it into a light brown color. Becareful not to overcook and burn it.

This is best achieved by continually mixing and turning the coconut.

It is not compulsory to cook the coconut, or even use coconut. If you prefer, plain uncooked coconut is perfectly fine, or no coconut at all is ok as well.

Once this is done pour the cooked coconut into a bowl or plate of some kind to stop it burning in the heated fry pan.

Next, pour 500ml of milk into a bowl or jug

add  1/3 of a cup of  brown sugar into the milk

then add 1/2 a cup of custard powder also into the milk

then pour all the contents into a frying pan

next add 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence to the mixture and mix thoroughly

next, place the frying pan on a stove and heat making sure to stir the mixture so there are no lumps in the mixture.

with the heat from the stove, the mixture will gradually thicken so keep stirring whilst this happens to work out any lumps that occur.

When the mixture is of suitable texture and thickness, take off the stove. Continue stirring to stop the mixture collaguating and forming lumps. Experience is the best test to see if the mixture is ready or not.

If it is still a bit runny then put back on the stove and heat for a bit longer.

If it is ready, pour straight onto the pastry base and spread evenly.

Next sprinkle the fried coconut over the top of the filling.

Let cool for a few minutes before cutting and eating.

You can also put it in the fridge to cool, making the mixture a bit firmer and easier to cut and remove from the cooking tray or serving bowl.

Enjoy!

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