Manchester's school-dinner-era dessert: shortcrust pastry, raspberry jam, vanilla custard, desiccated coconut, and a single glace cherry on top. Variation on Mrs Beeton's Manchester pudding.

The Manchester tart descends from the original Manchester pudding, first recorded by Victorian cookery writer Mrs Beeton in 1861 as a baked custard tart with breadcrumbs. The 20th-century version dropped the breadcrumbs, added a layer of raspberry jam and finished with desiccated coconut, surviving as a school-dinner staple and now a Manchester pub dessert menu fixture.

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Make it at home

Serves 82 hr 30 minIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 250g shortcrust pastry
  • 300ml whole milk
  • 300ml double cream
  • 1 vanilla pod, split
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 200g raspberry jam
  • 50g desiccated coconut
  • 8 glace cherries

Method

  1. Roll the pastry to 3mm thick and line a 23cm tart tin. Blind bake at 180C for 18 minutes with parchment and beans, then 5 minutes without to dry the base.
  2. Warm the milk and cream with the vanilla pod scraped in. Off the heat, whisk in the yolks and sugar; pass through a sieve.
  3. Spread the jam over the cooled pastry base and pour the custard on top. Bake at 140C for 30-35 minutes until just set with a slight wobble.
  4. Cool completely, then scatter the surface generously with desiccated coconut and dot the glace cherries evenly across the top before serving.

Editor tip. Cool the custard fully before scattering coconut; a warm surface clumps the flakes and ruins the texture.

Common allergens: Gluten, Dairy, Egg.