This apple custard tart is a sweet, comforting dessert with complementary textures and great flavours. You'll get a crisp shortcrust pastry case, a creamy, smooth-set custard, semi-soft cinnamon apples and a sweet apricot glaze.

It looks super impressive, and there are a few elements to work on, but it's surprisingly easy to pull together.

The shortcrust pastry case, for example, is a simple blend of plain flour and icing sugar, rubbed together with butter to produce a crumb and then mixed with a little cold water to produce a lovely smooth pastry dough.

You'll use the pastry to line a tart case and then blind bake (without a filling) until just cooked. This is what ensures you get a lovely crisp pastry, even on the base.

For the custard, you'll combine eggs, flour, sugar and vanilla, stir in hot milk, then heat together until thick and delicious. You'll then spread the custard in the base of the pastry case.

The apples are super simple. They just need to be briefly marinated in sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice, then arranged in the pastry case on top of the custard. A final sprinkle of sugar and your tart is ready to bake.

Once baked, a drizzle of heated apricot jam makes the whole thing extra special and utterly irresistible.

Here's the full recipe for me apple custard tart, complete with lots of photos to help you every step of the way.

Instructions

To make the pastry

Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan-assisted, 400F).

Put the flour and icing sugar in a bowl.

Stir together.

Add the cold, cubed butter.

Rub together until you have an even, slightly yellow crumb.

Add 2 tbsp of cold water and stir through the crumb with a rounded knife together until it starts to clump together.

Squeeze some of the mixture together to see if it forms a dough. If necessary, add up to a further 1 tbsp, drop by drop, until it will come together in a smooth ball.

Press into a round puck, wrap in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge while you make the custard.

To make the custard

Put the eggs, flour, sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.

Mix until smooth and set aside.

Warm the milk in a saucepan to almost boiling.

Pour the hot milk into the bowl with the egg mixture, stirring all the time.

Wash out the pan if it has any scalded milk in it, then return the mixture to it.

Heat gently until thick, stirring continuously with a silicon spatula to make sure the bottom of the pan doesn't catch. It should only take a couple of minutes to thicken up. Taste to make sure the flour is cooked out.

Pour into a clean bowl.

Close cover, meaning the clingfilm is touching the surface of the custard to stop a skin forming. Set aside to cool.

Make the pastry case

Roll out the pastry so that it is about 8cm (3 inches) wider that your loose-bottomed fluted, non-stick quiche tin.

Lift the pastry into the tin and make sure it's press into the corners all the way around.

Run a rolling pin across the top of the tin.

This should perfectly trim the pastry.

Prick all over the base with a fork.

Cover with a sheet of scrunched up baking paper and fill with baking beans, making sure they reach into the corners all the way round.

Bake for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven.

Remove the paper and baking beans and bake for a further 5-8 minutes until the base of the pastry case looks sandy with no grey patches.

Turn the oven down to 180C (160C fan).

Prepare the apples

Drain the apples, pat dry with some kitchen towel and place in a bowl.

Add the cinnamon, lemon juice and sugar.

Stir together.

Assemble the tart

Pile the custard into pastry case.

Spread to the edges and level off.

Arrange the apple wedges in circles in the pastry case. Leave behind any liquid that has released from the apples.

Sprinkle the caster sugar over the top of the apples.

Bake

Put the tart in the oven for 40-45 minutes, or until the apples are just starting to brown.

Towards the end of the baking time, make the glaze. You'll need to heat the apricot jam with a teaspoon of water. You can do this either in a heatproof bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, or in a pan on the stove.

Once the glaze is heated and loosened, carefully push it through a sieve to remove any bits.

Once the tart is out of the oven, drizzle the apricot jam all over the apples and use a pastry brush to spread evenly.

Allow the tart to cool in the tin, then serve.

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