Shopping list

• 5 eggs
• ½ teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 ½ cups whipping cream
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 4 oz. Maria biscuits (or other rich tea biscuits) plus 4 perfect whole biscuits for decoration

Preparation and cooking

1. Separate the eggs, yolks in one bowl, whites in another.
2. In a double boiler, mix the egg yolks with ⅓ cup of the sugar and milk. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thick. Cover the custard in a bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to cool, about two hours. TIP: If you don’t have a double boiler, set a stainless steel bowl above boiling water in a saucepan.
3. In a large bowl, add lemon juice to the eggs whites and beat until they begin to make stiff peaks. Then gradually add the remaining sugar, while continuing to whisk. The meringue mixture will become shiny and smooth.
4. In another bowl, whip the cream until stiff. Fold into the meringue mixture.
5. Crush the Maria biscuits and set aside.
6. In a large glass serving dish or in individual glass dishes, spoon a layer of meringue mixture, then a layer of crumbled biscuits and another layer of meringue mixture. Finish with a layer of custard.
7. Refrigerate for at least two hours.
8. Before serving, garnish with a sprinkle of crumbled Maria biscuits, and decorate with a single perfect biscuit.

TIPS: This recipe uses several short cuts which will enable the home cook to get the best results.

1. Avoid the heartbreak of trying to make puff pastry from scratch and use the frozen product instead; all-butter puff pastry in a roll if you can get it.
2. To get the oven temperature close to the searing heat of a professional bakery oven, put two baking pans (or better yet, pizza stones) in the oven, one on top and one on the bottom, with just enough room between for a rack to carry the tart tin, turn the heat up to your oven’s maximum, very, very hot, say 280°C / 535°F.
3. Use a double boiler to make the custard or failing that a stainless steel bowl floating in a pan of boiling water.
4. Blind bake the tarts before adding the custard filling.
5. A shallow 12-hole tart tin, rather than a deep muffin tin, will make the right size tarts.

Shopping list

• 454 g / 1 lb frozen all-butter puff pastry, ready rolled
• 125 g / 4 ½ oz / about ¾ cup icing sugar, plus more for dusting
• 10 ml / 1/3 cup cold water
• 300 ml / 1 ¼ cups whole milk
• ½ tsp vanilla essence
• Pinch ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 6 eggs, yolks only
• 2 TBSP unsalted butter
• Small bowl, icy water

Preparation and cooking

1. Defrost the pastry roll it up, cut into 12 equal logs, wrap and return to the fridge, not freezer. (Sometimes it comes in two rolls, which will make 6 tarts each),
2. Grease a 12-hole shallow tart tin with butter and cool in the fridge.
3. An hour before you want to cook the tarts, preheat the oven to its maximum temperature—280°C / 536°F—and set up as above.
4. Preparing the custard: In a double boiler, or a stainless steel bowl set over a pan of water on the stove, mix the milk, water, cinnamon, vanilla, lemon and sugar. Simmer over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Do not boil. Remove from heat and allow the ingredients to infuse for 5 mins.
5. Separate the eggs, discarding the whites and put the yolks into a mixing bowl. Whisk until creamy.
6. Add 1 TBSP of warm milk mixture to the egg yolks (make sure it’s not too hot) and whisk vigorously. Keep adding about 2 TBSP of milk at a time until it is all blended.
7. Return the custard mix to the saucepan and place it over a very low heat. Keep stirring gently but constantly with a spatula, scraping around the sides to avoid sticking. Don’t let the custard burn. (If you are using a double boiler or the simple bowl in a pan method, this won’t likely happen.) Patience is required as the very thin custard needs time to thicken, up to 25 mins. If you rush, the eggs will scramble. As soon as the custard has thickened to the consistence of double cream, remove it from the heat and cover.
8. Preparing the pastry: Remove the puff pastry logs from the fridge and place one in each cup in the tart tin, on end. This is the tricky bit and requires practice. Dip one thumb in the ice water, then press it in the middle of the spiral log. Push it down to the bottom of the cup. Now dip your other thumb in icy water and manipulate the pastry so that it is first flattened on the bottom of the cup and then smoothed up the sides of the cup. Try to get the pastry as even as possible all around, thicker on the sides than the bottom. It is also critical to get the pastry to rise about ¼ in above the rim. Flatten it over so it looks like an upside down hat with a brim. You can’t really hurt the pastry, so work it until it is right. Otherwise the pastry will shrink back into the cup when it is baking.
9. Blind bake the tarts (ie, without their filling) for 8 to 10 mins, until golden brown.
10. Remove the tray from the oven. If any of the pastry has collapsed, carefully push it back against the sides of the cup with a wooden spoon handle. Pour or ladle the custard into the pastry shells to within ¼ in of the top.
11. Return to the oven and bake for a further 8 to 10 mins, until the custard has caramelised on top. Don’t worry if some of the edges are slightly charred, or brown spots appear on the custard. That is an authentic look and slightly burnt bitterness is part of their characteristic flavour.
12. Remove from the oven and allow the tarts to cool in the tray for a few minutes. When safe to handle, transfer them to a rack to cool further, until barely warm. Sprinkle generously with icing sugar.
13. Best served warm the same day.