Apricot and elderflower custard tart: The best of what’s in season

At home I enjoy baking tarts and love using fresh fruit. I chose this recipe as the elderflower that is coming out everywhere at the moment goes so well with apricots, which are starting to come to their best.

The recipe also works really well with peaches when they come in, and is always well received. I make my own jams and marmalade, but there are some wonderful home-made products out there that are very accessible to buy.

Robbie McCauley is head chef at Gregans Castle in Co Clare

Apricot and elderflower custard tart

Makes one

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Ingredients
For the pastry
225g plain flour
110g butter
80g icing sugar
1 egg

For the custard
8 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
450g cream
2 heads of fresh elderflower

For the filling
200g apricot jam
50g elderflower cordial
12 fresh apricots cut in half and stone removed

Method
1 Crumb together the flour and butter with finger tips or in a food processor. Add the sugar and gently mix. Add egg and work to a soft dough. Cover and leave to rest in the fridge.

2 Roll out the sweet pastry to fit a 28cm tart ring, prick with a fork and trim off the excess.

3 Cut a piece of grease proof paper that is larger than the inside of the tart mould, scrunch it up twice to make it more pliable, place inside the pastry and fill with baking beans (use rice if you have no baking beans).

4 Blind bake the pastry at 150 degrees Celsius for 20-25 minutes, till cooked but not too heavily coloured. Leave the pastry to cool.

5 Bring the cream to the boil in a pot, add the fresh elderflower and cover and leave to infuse for 30 minutes , then strain and bring back to the boil.

6 Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together add the infused cream.

7 Heat the apricot jam and elderflower cordial together and spread over the base of the pastry tart base.

8 Place the apricot halves cut side down on the jam to cover the bottom of the tart.

9 Preheat your oven to at 120 degrees Celsius. Place the tart on a baking tray in the oven and pour the custard into the tart (doing this in the oven makes it easier to fill to the top and less likely to spill).

10 Bake for 30-40 minutes till the custard is set. Leave to cool to room temperature before serving.

Kitchen Cabinet is a series of recipes from chefs who are members of Euro-Toques Ireland, who have come together during the coronavirus outbreak to share some of the easy, tasty things that they like to cook and eat at home #ChefsAtHome