
Rhubarb and Custard Pie
Try this sweet and creamy rhubarb and custard pie recipe for a sweet treat. Made with Jus-Rol shortcrust and filo pastry and served with rhubarb syrup.
Quick Stats
Moderate
40 minutes bake time
Rhubarb and Custard Pie
Try this sweet and creamy rhubarb and custard pie recipe for a sweet treat. Made with Jus-Rol shortcrust and filo pastry and served with rhubarb syrup.
Ingredients
- 500 g Jus-Rol™ shortcrust pastry
- 4-5 sheets Jus-Rol™ Filo Pastry
- 4 stems of new season rhubarb – the pinker the better
- 1 pint Cornish Pear Rattler (why not!) or other Perry
- Few stems of saffron (in honour of the traditional Cornish Saffron Buns)
- Good dollop of Cornish clotted cream (always good!)
- 1 vanilla bean
- 6 free range egg yolks
- 480 ml single cream
- 140 g Caster sugar
- Icing sugar and clotted cream to serve
Equipment required
- Pie Dish
- Baking paper
- Baking Beans
- Saucepan
- Baking Sheet
Techniques Used
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How to Roll Shortcrust Pastry
How to Roll Shortcrust Pastry
- For best results when rolling out shortcrust pastry use a large, clean dry area of the work surface and lightly dust it with plain flour.
- Place pastry dough on surface and lightly dust it and the rolling pin with flour.
- Roll pastry firmly, always rolling away from you, give the dough 2-3 rolls.
- Then turn the dough a quarter turn.
- Dust again if necessary and continue rolling out, frequently turning the pastry so it is not always rolled in the same direction as this causes shrinkage.
- When the pastry has increased in size, pick it up to turn/ line the tin by rolling it round the rolling pin.
- Lift the pin with the pastry around it carefully and turn it to lay out and continue rolling. Again this is done to prevent the pastry from stretching as you lift it which in turn would result in shrinkage in baking. Shortcrust pastry should be rolled out to approx. 3-5 mm. depth.
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How to Blind Bake Pastry
How to Blind Bake Pastry
Once a flan tin or ring has been lined you may wish to bake it unfilled (baking blind), to then fill later with a cold filling or one which requires a lower cooking temperature. It is always best, if time allows, to chill the unbaked flan in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes before baking blind.
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- Take a large piece of silicone baking or greaseproof paper and pleat it so that you can fit it into the flan tin easily.
- Press paper gently into flan case and allow excess to stand up around edges.
- Cover base with baking beans or similar. It is possible to buy ceramic baking beans which are re-usable, otherwise use uncooked rice, split peas or similar to weight down the base.
- Bake the flan according to recipe instructions, generally the flan is baked for 12-15 minutes then the paper and beans removed and the flan returned to oven to finish baking to a golden brown.
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How to Line a Flan Ring
How to Line a Flan Ring
- When lining flan rings, place the ring on a suitably sized heavy baking sheet and roll out pastry as described in ‘Rolling out Pastry’ pages.
- Roll pastry around pin as described in ‘Rolling out Pastry’ pages and lay carefully over the flan ring on the tin.
- Ease pastry gently into ring and press firmly down sides, again allowing a small excess at base as for the flan tins.
- Allow excess pastry to fall over sides and to cut it away use a sharp knife and trim all round the top outside edge of the ring.
- Gently ease pastry up all round the inside of the ring as described in the flan tin section so that the pastry stands slightly proud of the top of the ring.
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How to Line a Flan Tin
How to Line a Flan Tin
- Roll out the pastry. Measure tin over rolled out pastry to ensure you will have enough to line the insides of the tin with a little excess to make it easier to work.
- Lift up pastry around rolling pin and gently unroll over flan tin, starting with the edge nearest to you.
- Gently ease the pastry into the tin, pressing it down the sides onto the base.
- Once you have pushed it in all the way round, go around again to press well down on to base, so that there is almost a ‘pleat’ of pastry at base of sides, and press into the flutes.
- Fold back excess pastry so that it hangs over the sides of the tin.
- To cut off the excess pastry roll the pin firmly over the top of the tin in both directions.
- Gently pull away excess pastry.
- Now gently pull up the sides of the pastry from the small excess you left at base so that the pastry stands slightly proud of the top. This will ensure a good depth to the sides of the flan if the pastry shrinks slightly in cooking.
Method
- Preheat oven to 190°C (170°C for fan assisted), Gas Mark 5.
- Line a 25cm loose bottom pie/flan dish with the sweet shortcrust pastry rolled out to approx 5mm thick. Line with paper and baking beans and blind bake for 20 mins, removing the paper and beans for the final 8-10 minutes of the cooking time. Remove from the oven, reduce oven temperature to 160⁰C (140⁰C fan assisted oven), Gas Mark 3.
- In the meantime, cut the rhubarb into 2cm pieces, place in a pan and cover with the Cornish Pear Cider. Poach gently until the rhubarb is just soft and NOT breaking down. Drain the fruit and save the poaching juices. For the custard, heat the single and clotted cream with the saffron flecks and beans scraped from the vanilla pod until just before the boil. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until thoroughly combined. Allow the creams to stand for a minute then add slowly to the egg mixture, beating thoroughly. Return to the pan and stir over low heat for 2-3 minutes until it feels “silky”.
- Place the pastry case onto a baking sheet. Pour the custard mix into the pastry case. Stud the custard with the pieces of poached rhubarb, pressing in gently. Place carefully on the middle shelf of the oven for 30 mins or until just set.
- While the custard pie is cooking, put the poaching juices back into a pan on a gentle heat and reduce down to a syrup. Add sugar to taste if necessary, but should have a slight sharpness to it.
- When the custard is just set, remove from oven and turn oven up to 200°C (180°C fan assisted oven), Gas Mark 5.
- Take the sheets of filo, and one at a time loosely crumple up and place on top of the custard and rhubarb filling until it is covered, (should look like crumpled paper-not too flat). Place back into the hot oven and bake for a further 8-10 mins. or until the filo is crisp and lightly golden. Dust with icing sugar. Remove from the flan tin before serving.
- Serve a wedge of the pie warm with a dollop of Cornish clotted cream and drizzled with the pink rhubarb syrup. Enjoy.