Dr Mobeus
Cornflake Tart
Cornflake tart was the pudding half the dinner hall queued twice for: a jammy shortcrust base under a chewy, sticky mat of cornflakes bound with golden syrup. It is a genius bit of thrift, using a handful of breakfast cereal as a cheap stand-in for the nuts and pastry of more grown-up tarts, and it costs about £2.00 for eight generous slices, roughly 25p each. The texture is the whole point, crisp at the flake tips and chewy underneath where the syrup soaks in. A tin of this feeds a whole table of hungry people, and there is never a slice left over.
Cornflake Tart
Ingredients
Method
- Heat oven to 190C (170C fan). Rub the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs, stir in the sugar and add enough cold water to bring it together into a dough. Roll out and line a 20 cm tart tin, prick the base and chill for 10 minutes.
- Line the pastry with baking paper and baking beans, and bake blind for 12 minutes. Remove the paper and beans and bake 5 minutes more until the base is dry and pale gold. Reduce the oven to 180C (160C fan).
- Warm the jam gently and spread it over the base in an even layer.
- Melt the 50 g of butter with the golden syrup in a large pan over a low heat, then take off the heat and fold in the cornflakes gently, keeping some crunch, until every flake is coated.
- Pile the cornflake mixture over the jam and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the topping is shiny and just beginning to darken at the tips. Cool completely in the tin before slicing into 8, the jam layer needs to stop bubbling first.
Tips and Variations
Do not crush the cornflakes too much when folding in the syrup; big flakes give the topping its character. Rice cereal makes a denser, crispier version for anyone who finds cornflakes too chewy. A handful of sultanas stirred through with the flakes is an old school variation. The tart keeps 2 days in an airtight tin and the topping stays pleasantly chewy rather than going soft.
