Stephen (My second to eldest Son) recently moved in with his lovely girlfriend Rieanna. Rieanna has become very easily a big part of our family, she just fitted in right from the start and we all love her to bits. They come over for dinner most weeks and the routine is, we all sit together at the table, eat, chat and have a laugh, then the boys disappear to the lounge to play on the Playstation and Rieanna and I sit and chat.

I asked her the other day what was her favourite dessert, her reply ‘Gypsy Tart’. I had never heard of it, but she said that she had fell in love with it whilst at primary school.

So I did some research, it would appear that Gypsy Tart is an old Kentish dessert and was often served in primary schools in squares, even Rosie & Olly as soon as they tried it said ‘oh my god, I remember this’!

The story behind Gypsy Tart is that there was an old gypsy woman who saw a group of children in the field near her house, they looked so undernourished that she wanted to make them something to eat and made the only thing she could with the ingredients she had, this being muscovado sugar and evaporated milk. I am not sure if this is true, but it is such a lovely story.

It is so simple to make, the only complicated part is making the pastry and you could always buy a ready made one, but all you have to do is whip up the evaporated milk with the muscovado sugar until it gets very frothy; then you pour it into a your blind baked pastry case, and set in the oven at a low temperature for just a few minutes, until the tart has a lovely caramelised mousse texture.

I did use light muscovado sugar as the recipe I was following didn’t say which one to use, but I have now discovered that I should of used dark, oh well, it tasted amazing and it gives me another opportunity to make it again for her.

Buon appetito

For the pastry (makes 500g)
125g unsalted butter
90g caster sugar
1 large egg
250g plain flour

For the tart
300g pastry
400g evaporated milk
330g dark muscovado sugar

Combine the butter and caster sugar in a food processor. Add the egg and process for 30 seconds.

Tip in the flour and process for a few seconds until the dough just comes together. Add 1tablespoon of cold water if the dough seems dry, I didn’t need to do this, it came together really well.

Knead on a floured surface then shape into a flat disc and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 170C/gas mark 3.

Roll out 300g of the pastry and use to line a 21cm tart tin, I did my cling film trick, best way to roll pastry, no mess and easy to move around.

Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper; fill with baking beans and bake for 15 minutes, then remove the baking beans. Return to the oven for 5-10 minutes until the base is a pale golden brown.

Whisk the milk and sugar together until light and fluffy (it takes about 15 minutes).

Pour the milk mixture into the pre-baked pastry case then cook for 5-10 minutes until risen and the surface is tacky.

Remove from oven and leave to cool and set before serving.