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Individual Yorkshire Curd Tarts recipe

“Yorkshire curd tart is a true legacy recipe of the county and was created to use up leftover fresh curd from the cheese-making process.

Individual Yorkshire Curd Tarts recipe
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Ingredients

For the curds
  • 1 litre full cream milk
  • 2 tbsp rennet
For the pastry
  • 200g plain flour
  • 110g butter (or a mix of 50/50 butter & lard)
  • a pinch salt
  • 2 tbsp cold water
For the tart
  • 100g unsalted butter, softened
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 2 medium eggs, well beaten
  • a pinch salt
  • 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
  • 1 rounded tbsp fresh white breadcrumbs
  • 50g plump, seedless raisins
  • 50g currants

“Yorkshire curd tart is a true legacy recipe of the county and was created to use up leftover fresh curd from the cheese-making process. 

Fresh curds can be bought from a dairy, and if you are lucky to find them, then that’s wonderful but they are quite hard to come by. However, making your own is easy, but you will need to start the day before you make the tart.”

Serves 4

Recipe taken with permission from Elaine Lemm‘s cookbook More Than Yorkshire Puddings, published by Great Northern Books.

Method

01
Making curds:
02
Place the milk into a saucepan and over a gentle heat. Bring to 37°C using a thermometer. Remove from the heat, stir in the rennet and leave in a cool place to set. Once cooled and set, gently break up the mixture into large chunks using a fork.
03
Line a large sieve or colander with fine muslin or cheesecloth and place over a large bowl. Spoon the chunks of curd into the sieve or colander and leave to drain for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
04
Making the pastry by hand:
05
Using a large clean cold mixing bowl, sift in the flour then add the butter and salt. Gently rub the mixture between your fingers to incorporate the fat into the flour, lifting as you rub to add a little air for a light pastry until the mix resembles breadcrumbs.
06
Add the cold water a little at a time, and using a cold knife, stir to bind the dough together. Do not over mix. Add more water as needed.
07
Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for at least 15 minutes, longer if you can.
08
Making the pastry by machine:
09
Place the flour, butter and salt into the bowl of a food processor.
10
Pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs as above; this will happy quickly. With the motor running add the water a little at a time, and the instant the pastry starts to bind stop the motor. 
11
Tip the pastry onto the work surface, lightly bring it together, and wrap in clingfilm as before. 
12
Making the tart:
13
Roll out the pastry to 5 mm thick. Grease and line 4, 4 x 10 cm tart tins with the pastry. Prick the bases all over with a fork. Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes then bake blind.
14
To blind bake preheat the oven to 200C. Crumple a sheet of baking paper, large enough to cover the base and sides of each tart case, smooth it out, place in the tart and fill with baking beans if you have them or rice if not (I keep a jar of rice which I use over and over). Cook for 10 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Remove the paper and beans or rice and cook for a further 5 minutes. 
15
Cream the butter and sugar together in a large baking bowl until fluffy and light, and pale in colour. Tip the curd mixture into the creamed butter. 
16
Add the beaten eggs, salt, nutmeg, allspice and beat well until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Finally, stir in the breadcrumbs, raisins and currants. 
17
Pour the curd mixture into the prepared tart cases and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden brown. Leave them to cool, then serve. The curd tarts are best eaten slightly warm and at best within 24 hours of making them.