Off Duty Chef: Raspberry & vanilla puff tart

Ingredients

Serves 8

For the pastry:

• 1 Block of ready made Puff Pastry
• 1 egg yolk
• 50g icing sugar

For the filling:

• 250g Milk
• 250g Cream
• 2 Vanilla pods or 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 30g Cornflour
• 5 egg yolks
• 100g Caster Sugar

To garnish:

• 200g ripe Summer raspberries
• Mint leaves
• 6 tsp raspberry jam

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200c.
2. Take your puff pastry from the fridge. Roll it on a heavily floured surface until it's approx. 2cm thick. Cut into a rough circle using your tart case or ring.
3. Line the tart case or ring, leaving some overhanging pastry but with the pastry filled into all edges and corners.
4. Line the pastry case with a sheet of parchment and place a heavy based saucepan in the middle, leaving a little space around the edges so the pastry can puff inwards.
5. Bake for 30 mins before removing the pot. The pastry should be brown all over. Once the pastry is cooled, use a fine grater to file down the edges and achieve a neat edge.
6. Mix the egg white and icing sugar into a paste and brush the interior and exterior of the pastry with a pastry brush. Return the tart to the oven for 8 mins at 200c until it goes dark golden brown and shiny. Remove and allow to sit at room temperature.
7. Now to make the vanilla cream filling, place the milk and cream in a medium saucepan with the scraped vanilla seeds and pod, allow it to simmer.
8. Mix the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a separate bowl, scorch with the milk and cream and then return to the medium saucepan. Increase the heat and whisk until the mix thickens and bubbles before placing in the fridge to cool.
9. Once cold, mix lightly with a spatula to create a smooth texture.
10. To assemble the tart, cover the base with a thin layer of jam, top with the pastry cream and then the fresh fruit. Garnish with mint leaves and serve chilled.