Vanilla Bean Paste Sea Buckthorn Tart with Brown Sugar Crust

Image from Naturalherbalextracts.com

The Sea Buckthorn harvest is in the fall so I am out of season. However, I was on a quest to use up a ton of leftover egg yolks from my latest macaron failures 🙂 So I found myself rummaging through my pantry to find a custard or curd flavor idea when I spied a bottle of Sea Buckthorn liqueur.

Most of you have probably never heard of Sea Buckthorn. I certainly didn’t before I moved to Germany.

Some Facts:

• Native to Northern Asia and Europe, it grows in coastal areas in England.
• Each berry has 50 times the vitamin C of a whole orange in addition to high level of omega -3 oils and carotene.
• In Finland it’s used as a nutritional ingredient in baby food.
• A brewery in Brussels makes a beer out of it.
•  It is used in Asia for medicinal purposes for cough, digestion, blood circulation and pain relief.
• The berry is too acidic to be eaten raw.

The berry (and the liquor) have a tart deep flavor.  I made a way too potent curd out of it (was I not supposed to use the whole bottle?) So I had to make a dessert combining it with a more mellow flavor to balance it out. 

Hello vanilla bean paste custard. 

I was looking for a third flavor close to caramel so I went with a brown sugar crust to make a tart.

Now, I had to put the whole tart together without the potent curd overwhelming the delicate custard. I thought of swirling it into the vanilla bean custard.  Then I had what I thought was a better idea. I pulled out some star cookie cutters, greased them and placed them in the crust.

I filled the stars with the  sea buckthorn curd and refrigerated the tart for 15 minutes.

Then I spooned the vanilla bean custard in around the stars and put it back in the fridge.

After another 15 minutes I removed the tart from the fridge and gently lifted out the star cutters.

• 1+1/2 cups sea buckthorn liqueur
• 6 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1+1/2 tablespoons flour
• 1+1/2 tablespoons corn starch

• In a saucepan, Bring liqueur to a boil then remove from heat.
• Beat egg yolks with sugar until well mixed.
• Whisk in corn starch and then flour.
• Add a little of the hot liqueur to the egg mixture to temper.
• Keep adding a bit at a time until thoroughly combined.
• Scrape the mixture back into the saucepan.
• Whisking constantly, heat until curd has thickened.
• Let cool and then refrigerate until ready to use.

• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 7 egg yolks
• 1/8 cup corn starch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter cut into small pieces

• Whisk all ingredients except the butter over medium heat. Keep whisking until mixture thickens.
• Remove from heat and stir in the butter pieces.
• Let cool and then refrigerate until ready to use.

• 1 stick butter
• 1+1/4 cup AP flour
• 1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Grease pan.
• Cut butter into pieces.
• In a food processor pulse flour, brown sugars and salt until evenly combined.
• Add in butter and pulse until dough forms.
• Press into pan evenly.
• Bake for 20 minutes.