Canned Gooseberry Tart

During the third weekend in February I decided to make a substantial pudding to keep my energy levels up following a late finish at work the day before and the prospect of a late night catching up with a friend I had not seen for nearly two months.

I decided to adapt a recipe for Gooseberry Tart that I had seen. I took eight ounces of plain flour and then put them in a bowl with four ounces of margarine that I had cut into small pieces about an inch long. I then worked the ingredients by rubbing them in until the mixture resembled golden breadcrumbs which were not a dissimilar shade of yellow to the colour of the moon last night and on Thursday Night. I then added two teaspoons of caster sugar to the mixture and used about three tablespoons of milk to bind the mixture together until it was in a position to roll out. Sometimes you may need a little less than three tablespoons of milk to get the ingredients to come together but you should try and make sure the pastry is quite dry bearing in mind the dampness of the filling. 

The pastry when rolled out should be enough to cover a 25cm wide and 3cm deep pie dish. Always make sure that before you line the dish with pastry you have greased it thoroughly with margarine and put a little flour in it so that the pastry does not stick to it when you come to serve it.

To make the filling you first need to take a 300 gram can of Gooseberrys and purify them in a blender. It is tempting at this point to stick the purified Gooseberrys in a glass and drink them as a very sweet smoothie, instead leave them to one side and put the yolks and whites of four large eggs into a bowl with five ounces of caster sugar and eight fluid ounces of plain Greek Yogurt. You should then mix these ingredients together with a whisk before adding the Gooseberry Puree. Then the mixture should be whisked again until there are no air pockets in it which could burst whilst cooking the tart. When I cooked my tart my forearms were so sore from whisking I felt like I'd just bowled a ten over spell at my cricket team's club pro. The sore arms I have to say are worth it when you take into account the results.

I then poured the mixture into the pie dish and cooked it at 150 degrees (160 if you do not have a fan oven) for 45 minutes. I served it with a side helping of plain Greek Yogurt. The tart has a wide range of flavours; on one hand you have the sweet pastry which is balanced out by using plain Greek Yogurt in the filling. Some recipes for this tart use whipped cream instead of Yogurt, however the inclusion of the Yogurt makes the tart a little more healthy without losing the flavour and it stops the dish being too sweet and sickly for its own good.