Thai Milk Tea Custard Tart

This rich custardy vanilla scented tea tart is flavoured just like your favourite Thai Milk Tea! Decorated with lychees and fresh berries, it's a fun take on a classic custard tart.

I was making a cup of Thai milk tea one day when I thought, "This would make such a great dessert flavour!" Then a week later I was eating out at a Thai restaurant where they served a Thai milk tea custard and I saw that as a sign that I needed to make this Thai milk tea custard tart.

What is Thai milk tea? It's a popular sweet and milky tea that from Thailand. It is a strong black tea often scented with vanilla and is creamy thanks to evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk and it is also very sweet as it has quite a bit of sugar. It's often called "red tea" because of the reddish shade of the tea once made. You can buy it in large bags in places like Thai town in Sydney (or really large Asian grocery stores).

My favourite, inexpensive and easy to get Thai milk tea is from the 711 in Thailand. Every night while holidaying, I would stop by to buy one and stash it in the fridge so that I would start my day off with one.

Love Thai Milk Tea? Try my Thai Milk Tea Ice Cream!

On my first attempt to make this tart, this was an absolute DISASTER. I made this for my friend Valentina's birthday a couple of weekends ago.

Usually I experiment with recipes and most of the time it works out. But this time, as I was experimenting, it came to bite me in the ass in the most awful way. You see I have been trying to come up with a really wobbly custard tart, one that melts in your mouth.

The tart looked good - Valentina's daughter Katie placed candles on it and we sang Happy Birthday to her. Then it came to slicing up the tart. And then came it all turned to custard - literally.

While everyone was waiting, I tried to lift up the tart tin from the edge as it has a removable base. It wouldn't budge. My brain was panicking. Joe kindly said, "The first slice is always the hardest to get out". I barely got the first slice out and then each other slice was like the barest set jelly. Instead of a pretty tart it was like blancmange. Everyone was kind about it, but I was mortified. I had put too much milk in it and it didn't have enough egg to set it. I remade it again, this time changing the proportions but of course this was too late for the birthday dinner. I have definitely learnt my lesson-no more experiments on special occasions! And definitely don't do it in front of a group of people!

So tell me Dear Reader, are you an experimenter? Have you ever had something "turn to custard"? Do you like Thai milk tea?

Thai Milk Tea Custard Tart

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: minutes

Cooking time:

• 150g/5ozs. flour
• 100g/3.5ozs butter, cold
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons ice cold water

Custard layer

• 150ml/5flozs. milk
• 150ml/5flozs. cream
• 3 tablespoons Thai milk tea leaves
• 120g/4ozs. caster or superfine sugar
• 2 egg yolks, room temperature

• 3 eggs, room temperature

• Berries and lychees to decorate

Step 1 - Place the flour, butter, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the water and pulse until it just comes together. Place on a non stick mat or a lightly floured surface and knead into a ball. Cover with cling film and rest overnight.

Step 2 - Oil a 23cm/9.2inch tart tin with removable base. Roll out the pastry and line the tin with it, with some overhang on the side. Dock with a fork and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Step 3 - Meanwhile heat the milk and cream together and then steep with the Thai milk tea leaves for 5 minutes. Strain through double layered paper towels.

Step 4 - Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Bake the pastry case for 20 minutes or until the base is cooked. Cool and reduce oven temperature to 120C/248F.

Step 5 - Whisk the cream, sugar, egg yolks and eggs together and heat gently in a saucepan until it reaches 80C/176F or set the Thermomix for 7 minutes, 80C/176F speed 4. Pour into the cooked base and skim off all the bubbles. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until set. Cool and decorate with berries and lychees.