POTSUIKERVLAAI

Serves 4-6

This sugar and custard tart has an excellent velvet-like mouthfeel with the sandy sugar topping as a contrast. One of our contestants on Bake Off in Flanders was from the Flemish Limburg region, where vlaai are most popular today. Four years later I found myself by chance in the bakery where she buys her favourite vlaai and I talked to the baker. After I tasted it, it is now a firm favourite in our house too.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

250g strong flour

100g unsalted butter, softened

25g caster sugar

7g instant dry yeast

½ tsp salt

85ml water

For the custard:

6 egg yolks

80g caster sugar

25g custard powder or cornflour

450ml full-fat milk

50ml double cream

1 vanilla bean, split, or 1 bay leaf

For the sugar-crumb topping

50g butter, softened

90g plain flour

90g soft light brown sugar

Equipment:

27cm top diameter x 23cm base diameter x 3cm depth pie tin, greased and floured

Method

For the pastry, combine the flour, butter, sugar, yeast and salt in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook. Pour in the water and knead for 10 mins until the dough is smooth. Cover the bowl and leave to rest for 1 hour or overnight in the fridge.

For the sugar-crumb topping, rub the butter into the flour and sugar until the mixture is crumbly, then keep in the fridge until needed.

For the custard, have a large, shallow ovenproof dish ready. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and custard powder until creamy. In French culinary terms, you’ve now made a ruban (ribbon).

In a large saucepan, warm the milk and cream with the seeds of the vanilla bean. Remove from the heat. Add 1 tbsp of the warm milk to the ruban and whisk well, then add the ruban to the warm milk, whisking constantly. Return the pan to the stove over low heat and whisk until the custard thickens, turning off the heat as soon as the mixture begins to give more resistance to whisking. Immediately pour the hot custard into the cold ovenproof dish, then cover the top of the custard (not the dish) with a sheet of plastic wrap to prevent it forming a skin.

While the custard cools, preheat the oven to 180C. Do not use the fan setting.

When the pastry has risen, knock out the air and roll out the pastry as thin as you can, then lay it over the greased tin. Press it into the base and cut away the excess pastry. Pierce the base all over with a fork, then spoon the custard into the tart. Get the sugar crumb topping out of the fridge and sprinkle it over the custard.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 30-35 mins. Set aside to cool completely and serve cold.

Recipe from Dark Rye and Honey Cake by Regula Ysewijn (Murdoch Books)