Similar to a Bakewell tart but with custard instead of frangipane topping, a Manchester tart consists of an almond shortbread crust with raspberry jam and vanilla creme patissiere, coconut and cherries. This recipe makes anough pastry and custard for the equivalent of 3 x 20cm tarts, but I made two 15cm tarts and two 10cm tarts. You can also mix the recipe up by using half of the pastry to make banana custard tarts. This is where Dr Oetker’s Banoffee Sprinkles add a nice finishing touch.
- Almond shortbred crust, raspberry jam, custard and coconut
- Custard, toasted coconuts and Morello cherries
- Sliced bananas, custard and banoffee sprinkles
Manchester Tart
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Harry Jennerway
Serves: 3 x 20cm tarts
Ingredients
Pastry Crust
- 80g cake flour
- 75g ground almonds
- 150g unsalted butter (cold)
- Dash salt
- 35g caster sugar
- 1 egg
Creme Patissiere
- 400ml milk/cream
- 3 eggs
- 80g caster sugar
- 2 tbsp cornflour
- 2 vanilla pods
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Manchester Tart Topping
- Half jar of raspberry jam
- 50g desiccated coconut
- Glace/Morello Cherries for garnish
Variation: Banana Custard Tart
- Large banana (sliced)
- Dr Oetker Banoffee Sprinkles
Directions
Almond Pastry Crust
- Cube the butter as soon as you take it out of the fridge and weigh out the rest of the ingredients.
- With a food processor, pulse the ingredients as minimally as possible until a dough ball forms. You should aim to have different sized chunks of butter.
- Wrap the ball of dough in plastic/foil and chill overnight.
Tart (After chilling the pastry)
- Roll out the pastry to the thickness of a £1 coin, line your chosen tart cases.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/375F, fill the pastry shells with foil and baking beans and bake for 15 mins. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 mins until lightly golden.
- Cool before filling.
Creme Patissiere
- Whisk the eggs and sugar with the cornflour.
- Heat the milk/cream until simmering.
- Mix the eggs with the simmering cream and whisk constantly for ~5 mins until slightly thickened.
- Strain through a fine mesh sieve, then add the seeds from the vanilla pods and vanilla extract.
- Refrigerate until ready to use.
Filling and Topping
- Spread the base with raspberry jam.
- Spread the custard over the jam, then sprinkle with desiccated coconut and top with cherries. I had some flaked coconut too, which I toasted for a couple of minutes then crumbled up to add on top with the desiccated coconut.
Variation: Banana Custard Tart
- Thinly slice the banana and arrange on top of the base.
- Spread custard over the top, then sprinkle banoffee sprinkles on top.
- Lumps of butter in the pastry are good
- Layers of jam and bananas
- Banoffee custard tart (left) and Manchester tart (right)
- Label for Manchester tart