Milk Tart Crumble Bars

A delicious milk tart filling, sandwiched in between a crispy shortbread base and a cinnamon-spiced crumble.

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FOR THE BASE AND CRUMBLE

• 125g salted butter, melted
• 150g cake flour
• 30g cornflour
• 75g caster sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder (that is, half of a quarter teaspoon)

• 2 teaspoons flaked almonds
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

METHOD

1. Prepare the tin and the oven: Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm square baking tin, with baking paper and set aside.
2. Make the base and crumble: Place all the ingredients, except the butter, ground cinnamon and flaked almonds in a bowl. Pour over the melted butter and use a bread knife to bring together. The dough may be a bit clumpy, but that is fine.
3. Set aside the crumble topping: Remove about 40g of dough, mix through the ground cinnamon and place in the fridge as the crumble topping, until ready to use.
4. Bake the base: Place the remaining dough in your baking tin and bake for around 15 – 20 minutes as a guide. The base is done when the edges start to get a bit brown and the top has a very tan colour to it. Remove from the oven and set aside.

FOR THE SPICED APPLES

The spiced apples bring fruitiness, balance and overall texture to an otherwise creamy bake. I am hesitant to list it as optional, as I do feel like this milk tart crumble bars are less complete without it. If you are really in a pinch you can leave it out, but I implore you not to.

• 20g salted butter
• 2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into about 1 cm cubes
• 50g brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cornflour mixed with 1/2 teaspoon water, to form a slurry

METHOD

1. Cook the apples: Place a medium pan on the stove and turn onto medium heat. Add the butter to the pan and heat until melted. Mix the apples with the rest of the ingredients, except the cornflour and water slurry. Add this to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes. The sugar should melt and the apples should soften a little. Avoid cooking the apples completely as they will bake in the oven and you want them to retain some texture.
2. Add the cornflour slurry to thicken the mixture: Once the sugar has melted and the apples have released some moisture, add in the cornflour slurry and cook for a minute or two until the apples are coated in a thick syrup and are looking all jammy. This gives the bars a delicious flavour without releasing too much water into the final bake.

FOR THE MILK TART FILLING

• 375ml full cream milk
• 125ml whipping cream
• 1 cinnamon quill
• 1 bay leaf
• a grating of fresh nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons cornflour
• 2 tablespoons cake flour
• 20ml water
• 75g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 45g butter, room temperature

METHOD

1. Heat the milk, cream and spices: Place the milk, whipping cream, cinnamon, bay leaf and grated nutmeg. Heat on medium until the milk begins to simmer. Then turn off and let steep for 5 minutes.
2. Mix the remaining ingredients: Place the flour and cornflour into a large heat-proof bowl. Slowly add in the water and mix to form a slurry. Add the watter a little at a time so that the flours are well dissolved. Then add in the sugar, eggs and vanilla and whisk to combine everything.
3. Temper the eggs with the hot milk: Slowly pour in the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture and whisk constantly to increase the temperature of the eggs, without scrambling them.
4. Cook the custard: Then place this mixture back into the pot and cook on medium heat until the custard begins to thicken. Make sure your are constantly whisking to ensure that the eggs do not scramble and the custard does not catch at the bottom of the pot. There will be a moment when things looks quite lumpy and curdled, but continue whisking vigourously and everything will come together.
5. Add in the butter to the custard: To add a bit of richness and set to the custard, when it cools, add in the butter and whisk until it melts into the hot custard. Remove the cinnamon quill and bay leaf from the custard and discard.
6. Add the custard to the shortbread base: Pour the milk tart filling onto the biscuit base and spread to cover the base, with an even layer of the custard.
7. Add in the cooked apples and the crumble: Now add in the cooked apples randomly over the milktart filling, to disperse the flavour. Then remove the crumble from the fridge and sprinkle the crumble the milk tart filling. I like to keep some pieces of the filling chunky for extra texture. Then toss on the flaked almonds.
8. Bake the milk tart filling and crumble: Place the milk tart crumble bars in the oven to bake at 180 degrees celcius for a further 20 – 25 minutes, until the crumble topping has browned slightly. Given the tin a shake, the custard may have a slight wobble in the centre, but should be firmly set around the sides of the tin. That is when you know that it is done.
9. Remove from the oven and let cool: Remove the milk tart crumble bars from the oven and let it cool in the tin completely. Then place in the fridge for about 4 hours to set before lifting out of the tin. If you desire, and want to add a bit of additional sweetness, dust with some icing sugar before serving.

Recipe by adventureswithsugar.com