Equipment
Ingredients
Shortcrust Pastry
- 200 g plain flour
- 100 g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
- 2 g salt
- 30 ml water, ice cold
Mushroom Filling
- 15 g unsalted butter
- 15 ml olive oil
- 300 g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
- 2 garlic, minced
- 3 g fresh thyme, leaves picked
- 3 g salt
- 2 g black pepper, freshly ground
Cream Custard
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 150 ml double cream
- 50 ml whole milk
- 50 g mature cheddar cheese, grated
Nutrition (per serving)
Nutrition is estimated per serving. Nutrients without complete source data are omitted.
Full nutrition
- Calories
- 454 kcal
- Protein
- 11 g
- Carbohydrates
- 30 g
- Fat
- 33 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sugar
- 2 g
- Sodium
- 428 mg
- Saturated Fat
- 18 g
- Trans Fat
- 0 g
- Monounsaturated Fat
- 10 g
- Polyunsaturated Fat
- 2 g
- Cholesterol
- 163 mg
- Potassium
- 352 mg
- Calcium
- 124 mg
- Iron
- 1.3 mg
- Magnesium
- 22 mg
- Phosphorus
- 215 mg
- Zinc
- 1.6 mg
- Vitamin A
- 301 mcg
- Vitamin C
- 1 mg
- Vitamin D
- 1.1 mcg
- Vitamin E
- 1.3 mg
- Vitamin K
- 4 mcg
- Vitamin B6
- 0.1 mg
- Vitamin B12
- 0.4 mcg
- Thiamin
- 0.11 mg
- Riboflavin
- 0.45 mg
- Niacin
- 2.4 mg
- Folate
- 35 mcg
- Water
- 100 g
Sources: Aggregated Public Data, USDA FoodData Central
Method
Combine plain flour, salt, and chilled diced butter in a mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Add the ice cold water and mix gently until the dough just comes together. Shape into a disc, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius or 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Roll the chilled pastry dough on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin to a 3mm thickness. Line the 23cm tart tin, pressing gently into the corners and leaving a slight overhang.
Line the pastry case with baking paper and fill with baking beans. Blind bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove the beans and paper, then bake for a further 5 minutes until pale golden and dry.
Heat the butter and olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook for 8 minutes without moving them too much, until deeply browned and all their moisture has evaporated.
Add the minced garlic, fresh thyme leaves, salt, and black pepper to the mushrooms. Cook for 1 further minute until fragrant, then remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
In a separate mixing bowl, use a whisk to gently combine the eggs, double cream, and whole milk until fully blended, avoiding introducing too much air.
Scatter the cooked mushrooms and grated mature cheddar cheese evenly across the base of the blind-baked pastry case. Slowly pour the egg and cream custard mixture over the filling.
Reduce the oven temperature to 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Carefully transfer the tart to the oven and bake for 25 minutes. For safety and ideal texture, a thermometer inserted in the center should read 74 degrees Celsius or 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remove the tart from the oven. Let it rest in the tin for 10 minutes to allow the custard to finish carrying over its heat and firming up before carefully removing from the tin to serve.
Chef's Notes
- Cooking the mushrooms thoroughly until deep brown is crucial; this concentrates their earthy flavor and removes excess water that could otherwise ruin the custard's setting ability.
- Always use ice-cold water and chilled butter for the pastry to prevent the fat from melting into the flour early on. This guarantees a flaky and tender crust.
- To prevent your pastry shrinking during the blind bake, ensure you rest the dough sufficiently in the fridge. This relaxes the gluten developed during mixing.
- If your pastry base has cracks after the blind bake, patch them immediately with tiny scraps of raw leftover dough before adding the liquid filling to prevent leaks.
Storage
Refrigerator: 3 days — Store in an airtight container once completely cooled.
Reheating: Reheat slices in an oven at 160 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes to recrisp the pastry. Avoid microwaving to prevent a soggy crust.
Troubleshooting
Pastry base is wet and soggy (soggy bottom)
Cause: Insufficient blind baking or the mushrooms were not cooked until all their moisture evaporated.
Fix: Cannot be completely fixed once assembled, but reheating individual slices in a hot oven on a preheated pizza stone or baking steel can help crisp the bottom crust slightly.
Prevention: Ensure mushrooms are cooked until completely dry and deeply browned. Blind bake the pastry until the base feels entirely dry to the touch.
Cultural Context
Savory tarts and flans have been a staple of British farmhouse baking for centuries, originally devised as an economical way to use up fresh local dairy and seasonal vegetables. The combination of earthy mushrooms paired with aromatic thyme reflects traditional woodland foraging practices in the UK. Today, a generous slice of a savory tart served alongside a sharp dressed green salad remains a quintessential feature of a classic British pub or cafe lunch.
