Red Wine Tarts with Champagne Grapes

Put flour in a medium to large bowl. Add the chilled butter and with the tips of your fingers rub the butter into the flour, till it resembles coarse sand (you don’t want the butter to be totally melted.

Add the egg(s) and bring the dough together to form a ball (you can add a splash of cold water if it’s still too dry, I didn’t need to add any water).

Don’t knead the dough too much; you don’t want the pastry to be tough, so as little handling and kneading as possible. Flatten the pastry into a disk; wrap in cling film and stick it in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

To check if the dough is ready, press it lightly with your fingertips, it should leave an imprint but shouldn’t sink into the dough easily.

Very lightly grease an 8-9 inch tart tin (with a removable bottom). You could use smaller tart tins, I used two 5 inch tins.

Take the pastry out of the fridge and on a lightly floured surface knead just a little to bring it together. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface roughly 3 mm thickness

Carefully lift the rolled out pastry and gently press it into the bottom and up the sides of the tart tin. Trim the edges and patch any cracks with the remaining dough. Place the crust in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Using a fork, prick all over the bottom of the crust, then place baking paper on top of the crust and fill it with baking weights or beans or rice (to prevent the crust from rising).

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, after that remove the baking paper and the baking weights and put the crust back in the oven for another 5 minutes or until it is a light golden brown colour.

After 2-3 minutes, lightly brush the crust with egg white (to seal it in). This helps the liquid filling from seeping into the crust and making it soggy.

For the filling, combine the wine, vanilla, cinnamon and orange zest in a pot and let it simmer till reduced by 2/3. Strain the liquid. I had about 200 ml of liquid after letting it simmer for about 20 minutes.

Beat the eggs and sugar to combine, then stirring it constantly and vigorously, slowly pour in the liquid. Fill the crust with the wine custard and bake in a 200C preheated oven for 15- 20 minutes or until set.

For the marinated grapes- lightly warm the jam till melted, add the wine and soak the grapes in it. Let it marinate for 10 minutes or so, then place on the tart and serve.