As said before, I have been very lazy with my poor little blog (though side note, almost at 2 000 views yay!). And I had kept making empty promises to you readers about reviews, posting, gold, jewels etc. So I shall take you on a little trip back into last month when my Grandma Jean turned 88.
As some of you know, one of the main reasons I moved away from my beloved Canberra was to be closer to my Family, especially my Grandmother as beforehand I only managed to visit her for Christmas (bad grandchild!), so far in the last six months I have visited her a handful of times and was delighted to actually visit her for her birthday. Born on the 18th February 1926, she’s still as witty and crazy as ever especially yelling at her cat whom she swears is a little terror until my Dad visits and he’s an angel, she’s an independent, book lover woman (hell I hope to be 88 with all my marbles and yelling at my cat!) so yes, totally wonderful to be there with Dad to celebrate her 88th with wine and cider (any excuse right?).
As mentioned in my previous post about whipple-friendly Christmas pudding, her oven does not work and I tried making a sponge cake that was whipple-friendly and carry it with me via public transport. The cake failed and did not have time to make a new one. I always have a plan B (from years of watching Dr Who and playing DnD, always have a back-up plan!), I wasn’t sure what the plan was, but it was there all the same.
I arrived at the Central coast and headed to the nearest supermarket with the plan of a non-bake custard tart with berries that is low-sugar, gluten-free, lactose-free and with low fruit acid (eg, citrus fruits, raspberries, strawberries), I figured with the last one to make an exception (I can always pick off the acidly heavy berries myself, why make the rest of the family suffer a berry-drought), using my excellent recall skills of dessert recipes, endless YouTube videos of Nigella and Jamie I headed to my fav health food aisle and discovered that Leda products, who make delicious whipple-friendly gingernut biscuits, also had arrowroot biscuits! (note to self: product review of LEDA products available to Australia)! So that plus Liddells lactose-free butter = biscuit base. Now to find gluten-free custard powder and Liddells lactose free milk, Paul’s lactose-free thicken cream and a range of berries, now I am set and off to Grandma’s! Must. Avoid. Big. Bad. Wolf being a cross-dresser.
Bless my family, when explaining how my sponge cake failed I received the ‘no, no you should not have bothered!’ – tough I am who I am and you’re getting a birthday dessert no matter how much you dislike custard! – tough love! So bashed the crap out of the biscuits (of course thinking of all the bad people and times to ensure ultimate whacking), making the custard via stove top and fanning strawberries to make them look pretty I made an excellent easy custard tart !
Me, Grandma Jean and whipple-friendly tart!
Jean’s Birthday Tart
Prep time: 30mins (plus 2 hours setting/chilling time) – Cooking time: 10mins (custard) – Serves: 5-6
Biscuit base
1 1/2 packets LEDA arrowroot biscuits
3/4cup Liddells lactose-free buttersoftened
Custard layer
Gluten/dairy-free custard powder (suggestion Birds)
Liddells lactose-free milk (I used longlife low-fat milk)
2 tbsp castor sugar
FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE 2 CUPS
1 tbsp of castor sugar to sprinkle on top
Cream layer
300ml Pauls Zymil Light Thicken cream (lactose-free)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp castor sugar
Topping
pfft any fruit you want on top – I used berries as they were on special and look pretty.
Step one, the fun bit: pop your biscuits into a plastic bag, grab any heavy item to bash and bash the living daylights out of biscuits (recommend you don’t use a priceless Ming vase, a rolling pin will do just as well) until you mainly get crumbs. Pour into a large bowl and add the softened butter, using your hands massage the ingredients until the butter has melted into the crumbs and you get a ‘wet sand’ feel of the mixture (may or may not need to add either more biscuits or butter).
Line a pie tray with baking paper (you should know how to do this, if not there is a thing called GOOGLE!) and pop your mixture into said tray and using your hands mould the mixture to make a base. Chill in freezer until completely set.
During the chilling time, follow the instructions to make custard, making sure this will will be a thick custard, spread onto the biscuit base, sprinkle sugar on top and chill in fridge until set.
Take this time to whip the cream with vanilla and sugar until hard peaks are formed (do the stupid test of holding bowl over your head to ensure the cream will stay put – gullible?) and spread on top of the custard layer.
Layer your chosen fruits to make the tart look pretty and place into fridge to chill more (I love chilling, chilling is cool – get it? cool?!)
Depending on how confidant you are of the biscuit base supporting the whole tart, pull out the tart and slice onto a serving dish, place candles onto fruit (I behaved and used 2 candles, don’t think 88 candles would have worked or might have burnt the house down – its ok I make this joke, my Grandma doesn’t have internet unless I show her this post, dammit!)
Serve and be amazing!
hold, hold, please dear God HOLD!
