Redcurrant tart

A large and spectacular tart this, with crumbly pastry and a vanilla cream filling. Chef Nigel Slater has sweetened the filling, to balance the extreme tartness of the fruits. He suggests shake over a little icing sugar too, just before you eat.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

300g plain flour
200g butter
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 large egg yolk

For the filling:

300g double or whipping cream
200g strained yoghurt
2 level tablespoons caster sugar
Vanilla extract
400g redcurrants or a mixture of red and white currants

You will also need a shallow loose-bottomed tart case, about 20cm, lightly buttered.

Details

Achieving the perfect results

1. Start with the pastry. Put the flour into the bowl of a food processor. Dice the butter roughly and add it then blitz for a few seconds until you have fine crumbs.
2. Tip in 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and an egg yolk and blitz very briefly once again then tip out onto a clean work surface.
3. Bring the ingredients together to form a ball then roll into a short, thick sausage. Cut thin slices from this and line the tart tin with them, laying them up the sides and pressing the pieces gently together with your thumb so that there are no holes. I find this method much easier than trying to roll out a fragile pastry like this.
4. Chill the pastry for a good half hour in the fridge before baking.
5. To make the filling, pour the cream into a chilled bowl and beat it gently until it starts to thicken. You want to stop shortly before it is thick enough to stand in peaks.
6. Gently fold in the yoghurt, then sweeten with the sugar and a few drops of the vanilla extract. Cover tightly with clingfilm and refrigerate.
7. Bake the pastry in an oven preheated to 180˚C/Gas 4 for about 25 minutes until it is dry and pale biscuit coloured.
8. Remove and leave to cool.
9. Carefully lift the pastry from its tin. It will be very fragile. I tend to keep the pastry on its base.
10. Fill the case with the vanilla cream. Rinse the fruit briefly, remove the currants from their stems and pile them on top of the cream.
11. Dust with icing sugar if you wish, but only just before serving.