This recipe for Yorkshire Curd Tart brings back such wonderful childhood memories of my mum making them and sometimes buying from our local bakers, also a great treat.
These tarts are a classic of my home county and believed to have become popular as a way of using up leftover cheese curds from the extensive cheese-making traditions there – Wensleydale being one of the most famous.
It is harder to find curds these days but not impossible (the ones in this tart were made with those from The Courtyard Dairy near Austwick. If you have a dairy near you they will be happy to sell them to you, I am sure. If not I have instructions on how to make them or to really speed the process up and make a good tart use cottage cheese.
Use the pastry recipe in the link below, or again, if you don have time use a shop-bought, though I would avoid the pre-made pastry cases, they tend to be too hard – sorry.
Ingredients:
1 quantity of shortcrust pastry (350g)
For the Filling:
125g unsalted soft butter
50g caster sugar
2 large eggs (well beaten)
175g fresh cheese curds
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground mixed spice
1 rounded tablespoon white breadcrumbs
55g plump, seedless raisins
55g currants
Method:
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured board to ¼ inch/5mm thick. Grease and line a 20cm x 4cm deep tart tin with the pastry. Prick the base all over with a fork. Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Line the tart case with baking/greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans and cook for 15 minutes or until the pastry is a pale golden colour. Leave to cool.
Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy and light and pale in colour, for this you can use a hand or stand mixer, or a wooden spoon.
Add the beaten eggs, salt, nutmeg, allspice, beating well until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Finally stir the curd into the creamed butter followed by the breadcrumbs, raisins and currants.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tart case and sprinkle the surface with a little extra nutmeg (optional). Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until golden brown.
To Serve the Yorkshire Curd Tart:
Leave to cool, then serve slightly warm. Eat within 24 hours of making.
If you enjoyed the Curd Tart you will find more baking recipes here.