Chef’s Table: Nigel Slater’s two autumn tarts with heart

‘If I make a tart for you, you will know I love you,’ Nigel Slater writes in A Cook’s Book. In this extract from his new book, the broadcaster and food writer delivers his take on two autumn tarts

Nigel Slater: in his new book, A Cook’s Book, the broadcaster and food writer reveals that when making tarts, the crispest pastry comes from using a metal tin, not a white china flan case

For several years in the early 1980s, I made tarts for a food shop. An early morning job, the dishes were lined with shortcrust pastry and baked blind, the dough kept in shape by baking parchment and baking beans. We filled them with a seasoned custard and whatever herbs and vegetables felt right for the time of year.

I didn’t know then that the crispest pastry comes from using a metal tin, not a white ...