Phew! This recipe took time to get through. I was very unaccustomed to making a dough with this much butter. Originally, I was thinking of making a fruit tart but I changed my mind mid-through to include custard rather than cream. Also, these tarts had a bit of excess shortbread because the recipe was intentionally designed to supply the crust for a whole pie (attained from http://www.joyofbaking.com/SweetPastryCrust.html). Because I lacked a pie dish, I used ramekins to create separate tarts for members of my family and molded it as shown below:
Pre-baking the crust:
I didn't use baking beans to prevent the pastry from rising. I relied on making holes in the pastry with a fork but it didn't help much. Next time, I'll stick with the baking beans for sure.
I used the custard recipe from here, seeing that it's rated 5 stars (https://www.deliciouseveryday.com/custard-tarts/). However, next time, I'll be sure to cook the custard entirely separately and then pour it into the pastry cups to set. That's because I wanted to have it set better than it did.
My family enjoyed this treat but I expected much more out of it. Considering it required half and half, a full stick of butter, and then a typical amount of sugar, I would have thought the custard would have a nice zing taste to it, but it just didn't meet my high expectations. It would be worth changing up this recipe to include orange crème anglaise with an alternative pastry dough more suited for baking in ramekins, for a clean and distinct taste. (Perhaps banana bread for the pastry portion would have added a nice twist.)
Well, it's on to the next one, once again.
