...or, to give its penny-plain monicker, 'egg-custard tart'. Which can either be the workaday version, using vanilla essence, or it can be raised to ambrosial levels by the use of a proper vanilla pod.
This is - or, by now, was, at any rate at the time several months ago when this precise recipe was lifted from the pages of Le Monde - all the rage in France, when at least Le Tout Paris was apparently chowing down on little else. Served with a raspberry coulis (1 cup of raspberries, liquidised, and sieved, and then sweetened to-taste, and a tbs of brandy added, to give the flavour some depth), it is quite splendid.
Serves six.
Ingredients: 1x 8 inch shortcrust tart shell; 265 ml milk; 90 ml single cream; 1 vanilla pod; 2 medium eggs (needs to measure 75g ); 90g sugar; 30g cornflour.
Method:
1. Blind bake the tart shell, to the biscuit stage
2. Combine the milk and cream; into this, scrape the contents of the vanilla pod, and heat in the top part of a double boiler.
3. Whisk the egg with the sugar, and mix in the cornflour.
4. Add the cream/milk mixture to the egg mixture, and mix well, before returnng the combined mixtures to the double boiler, and continue to cook over gentle heat for five minutes.
5. Carefully pour the mixture into the pastry shell, and cook at 180 degrees C for forty minutes or so, until the custard is just set.
Allow to cool (best) before serving.