Torta Della Nonna

I am a sucker for anything that involves custard and believe me after you have made this you will be too....

For the pastry:
300g plain flour plus extra for dusting
80g caster sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
150g butter cut into cubes
1 egg
1 egg yolk
grated zest of 1 lemon
pinch of salt

For the filling:
500ml milk
thinly pared strip of lemon zest
3 egg yolks
120g caster sugar
50g flour
few drops of vanilla extract


To decorate:
1 egg lightly beaten
pine nuts for sprinkling
icing sugar for dusting

To make the dough, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and a pinch of salt into a food processor. Add eggs, butter and lemon zest until you have a a dough, remove and divide into 2 balls and individually cover in cling wrap and place in refrigerator to rest.

Meanwhile, make the filling. Pour the milk into a pan, add the lemon zest and bring just to the boil, then remove from the heat and set aside. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Gently fold in the flour and the vanilla, add the milk, combine thoroughly and pour back into the pan. Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of the spoon and is very thick. remove from the heat and let cool stirring occasionally to prevent a skin from forming.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

Grease and flour 24cm pizza tray 

Roll out a piece of the dough on a lightly floured surface into a round slightly larger than the prepared tray, leaving a overhang. Fill with the custard filling and roll out remaining pastry and cover filling seal edges, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with pine nuts.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly dust with icing sugar and serve.