Raspberry brown butter chocolate custard tart

A raspberry-chocolate filled and raspberry baked custard tart. There’s a really nice balance between tart raspberries and sweetness so it doesn’t feel too overpowered in either direction.

The perfect bite comes from the filling which is a mix between a cake and custard texture and the chocolate filled raspberries which provide a lovely cold crunch.

This recipe is inspired and adapted from Carla Lalli Music’s recipe for a pear brown butter tart from her cookbook That Sounds So Good. There’s a few changes made, but the custard inspiration comes from her recipe, where she features a custardy-cake type of texture in the tart.

You can make this ahead of time, just don’t dress it with raspberries until the day of. If you need to reheat, you can do so in the oven to warm it through.

Ingredients:

Most importantly - store bought pastry dough! I use short crust, not puff pastry.

Powdered sugar, for garnish

Chocolate filled raspberries:

3 small boxes of raspberries, 125g size box

1 cup chocolate chips, milk or dark chocolate

You will need a large ziplock bag or a piping bag, and scissors

Raspberry brown butter custard filling:

1 small box raspberries, cooked down

1 small box raspberries, fresh

3 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp fine cooking salt

Brown butter:

110g unsalted butter

1 vanilla bean pod

the vanilla beans from inside the pod

Method:

To make the chocolate filled raspberries: set a mixing bowl over a pot of hot water and bring the water to a slow boil. Add the chocolate chips to the mixing bowl and stir as it melts. Once it is smooth and melted completely, remove from the pot and set aside to stop the heat transfer. Pour this melted chocolate into a piping bag and slice a small piece off the end so you can use it to pipe chocolate into the raspberries. Fill the raspberries to the top and set them standing up in a tupperware container. Leave in the freezer for 15 minutes, or the fridge overnight, depending on how much time you have, just to set the chocolate.

To make the brown butter: Slice open a vanilla bean pod and scrape out the vanilla beans. Cube the butter into evenly sized pieces and add to a pan over medium-low heat with the vanilla pod and the vanilla beans. Stir as it foams and then turns golden brown, take off the heat once it has turned a deep golden brown. Set aside into a large mixing bowl to stop the cooking process. Once it has cooled completely, remove and discard the vanilla pod.

Using one punnet of raspberries, add to the same pan used to make the brown butter and add a splash of water. Cook these raspberries down over medium-low heat, adding water every now and then until they are completely broken down. The consistency should be that of jam. Once this is done, turn off the heat and set aside to cool.

Blind bake the pastry: Preheat oven to 165C/330F fan-forced. Generously grease a tart tin with butter. Line the tin with pastry and prick the base several times with a fork. Line the top with baking paper and fill with baking weights, dried beans or uncooked rice in my case. Something heavy to hold down the bottom. Bake for 10-12 minutes. This could be different based on your store bought pastry, but it shouldn’t be too different. Check the packaging if they write anything about “blind baking” before adding your filling. If not, follow my steps.

To make the raspberry brown butter custard: To the large mixing bowl containing brown butter, add eggs and sugar and whisk to combine, using either an electric hand mixer on a low speed for 2-3 minutes, or a regular whisk vigorously for 3-4 minutes. Add flour and salt and whisk until the batter is smooth and completely combined. The batter should be a light golden colour and super smooth.

Once the pastry has come out of the oven, remove the baking paper from on top and remove any baking weight you may have used. The pastry should be partially baked. Add the cooked down raspberries and a punnet of fresh raspberries and smear gently around the base of the tart. Pour the brown butter custard over the top, making sure it covers the entire surface of the tart and gently tap the tin against the counter to remove any bubbles.

Bake until the filling is browned and a knife comes out clean from the center, about 45 minutes to 55 minutes. This time could give or take depending on your oven, just check periodically.

Let cool to room temperature, then fill the top of the tart with chocolate covered raspberries, filling one circle at a time, moving inwards. Sprinkle powdered sugar before serving and enjoy!