When people talk about the 80's I still think it was only about 10 years ago, and don't even get me started on the 90's. It seems like only yesterday I was whizzing around on a little skateboard, pretending to be Marty McFly. Where does the time go? One of the memories I hold dearest was going to school, I went to primary school in Sunderland and boy was it a beautiful building. A huge red brick Victorian number which still had the segregated boys and girls entrances, though we didn't use them. I'm not that old. Sadly it was pulled down to make way for a new modern school, a travesty if you ask me.
One of my favourite things about school was the school dinners, well the desserts more than the dinners. You can't really look back on liver and onions with much fondness. The anticipation as we entered the dining hall was always high. Would there be any strawberry milk left, what sweet treats awaited our eager selves or would we be stuck with a crappy portion of spotted dick? There was one pudding that we always crossed our fingers for, the magestic cornflake tart. Always served in squares cut from a huge silver tray and drenched in thick creamy custard, it was the king of the school dinner.
I completely forgot about this childhood treat until a few weeks ago my bestie brought up the subject of school dinners at work. We started discussing our favourite meals with childish nostalgia, and the ones that left a bad taste in our mouth. There was one thing we both agreed on, cornflake tart was the best. Somehow she convinced me to whip one up and bring it into work for us to enjoy over a cup of tea, I mean it didn't really take much persuarion if I'm honest. I went home and made it that very night. What a great friend I am!
If, like me, you look back on this tart with fondness, or if you've never had it. Maybe you were a packed lunch kid? I can highly recommend reliving a little bit of your childhood and spending an afternoon in the kitchen recreating a little bit of your school days.
Cornflake Tart
Ingredients:
- For the pastry :
- 125g plain flour
- 50g ground almonds
- 100g butter, cold from the fridge and cut into cubes
- 25g caster sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 small lemon, zested
- For the tart :
- 75g butter
- 150g golden syrup
- 50g caster sugar
- pinch salt
- 150g cornflakes
- 25g desicated coconut
- 100g good quality raspberry jam
Cooking Directions:
- To make the pastry, put the flour, ground almonds and salt into the bowl of a food processor, sprinkle in the butter and pulse until you get a breadbrumb like consistency. Add in the sugar, lemon and the egg yolk and pulse again until the pastry comes together in a ball. If it isn't quite coming together add a tsp of cold water until you realy the right consistency.
- Tip the pastry onto a lightly floured workbench and bring it together into a flat disc. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 1hr minimum or up to 12hrs.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C fan. Roll out the chilled pastry on a lightly floured work surface to about 3mm thick. Line a 23cm tart tin with the pastry, trim any excess, prick the base with a fork and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Line your chilled pastry base with greasproof paper and fill with baking beans. Blind bake the case for 20 minutes, remove the paper and beans and bake for another 10 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool.
- For the filling combine the butter, syrup, sugar and salt in a saucepan set over a lowheat and melt, stirring slowly. Remove from the heat, then tip in the cornflakes and coconut and mix in gently ensuring to give everything a good coating of syrup.
- Spread the raspberry jam over the bottom of the cooked pastry case and top with the cornflake mixture. Pop back into the oven for 15 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly before serving warm with lashings of vanilla custard.
