This Cornflake Tart uses 6 basic ingredients and it's exactly like the one you had at school. A shortcrust pastry base spread with strawberry jam and topped with crunchy sticky cornflakes. It's delicious served with hot or cold custard.
The retro recipe comes straight from a school dinner lady circa 1986!
I've got a fondness for classic desserts and sweet treats. It was a lot of fun recreating these really easy Fairy Cakes with Water Icing and this recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake takes me straight back to my childhood.
There's nothing more nostalgic than an old-fashioned Cornflake Tart. This is the ultimate old-school pudding and it's child's play to make from scratch.
Old school dinner desserts
I'm still in touch with my childhood school days friend, Sally, whose mum was a dinner lady back in the day. She has a school dinners recipe book that dates back 34 years to 1986.
There are all sorts of sweet and savoury recipes in there, including Treacle Tart, Sponge Cake with pink icing and hundreds and thousands as well as this amazing Cornflake Tart.
Ready-rolled shortcrust pastry
Back in the day, the dinner ladies would have made their own shortcrust pastry and the whole recipe would have been scaled up to fit in giant rectangular metal tins.
Well, I hope Jane (the dinner lady) will forgive me for using a sheet of ready rolled shortcrust pastry instead of making my own.
To make this recipe even quicker and easier, you can use a ready-made sweet pastry case instead of a sheet of shortcrust pastry.
Homemade shortcrust pastry recipe
If you want to do this in a truly authentic way then here's the original scaled-down recipe for the homemade shortcrust pastry:
- 225 plain flour
- 100g unsalted butter
- pinch of salt
- Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and rub in the butter until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.
- Add 2-3 tablespoons of warm water and mix to make a firm dough.
- Knead the dough gently then wrap in clingfilm and put it in the fridge for 1 hour.
- When the dough has chilled, lightly flour a worktop and roll the dough into a 30cm circle using a rolling pin.
How to make a Cornflake Tart
To assemble the Cornflake Tart, line a 30cm tart tin with the shortcrust pastry then prick it all over with a fork. You'll need to blind bake the pastry for about 20 minutes.
Blind bake using baking beans
I use ceramic baking beans to blind bake pastry but if you don't have any you can fill your pastry case with uncooked rice, dried beans, lentils or peas.
Blind baking seals the pastry resulting in a crisp pastry case. No soggy bottoms here ;-)
Traditionally, the pastry on a Cornflake Tart would be spread with strawberry jam but you can use any jam you have on hand. Raspberry jam would be a great alternative.
Chewy Cornflake filling
The star of this recipe and the bit we all remember is, of course, the cornflakes...
Butter, golden syrup and sugar turn the cornflakes into a lovely sticky, chewy and crunchy topping for the tart.
Once you've combined the Cornflake Tart filling, spread it on to the pastry case and pop the whole thing back in the oven for 5 minutes to set everything together.
Make sure you set a timer because any longer than 5 minutes and the sugars might burn.
When it's baked, the Cornflake Tart should be a beautiful golden brown.
Serve it straight from the oven with hot or cold custard and let every mouthful transport you back to the carefree days of your childhood!
More Classic Tempting Recipes
Cornflake Tart: Like The One You Had At School!
This Cornflake Tart uses 6 basic ingredients and it's exactly like the one you had at school. A shortcrust pastry base spread with strawberry jam and topped with crunchy sticky cornflakes. It's delicious served with hot or cold custard.
Ingredients
- 1 sheet ready rolled shortcrust pastry, (or ready made pastry case)
- 4 - 6 tbsp strawberry jam
- 40 g unsalted butter
- 30 g caster sugar
- 110 g golden syrup
- 80 g cornflakes
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200ºC/ 180ºC Fan / Gas 6 / 400ºF
- Line a 30cm tart tin with the shortcrust pastry, trimming any excess with a knife. Prick the pastry all over with a fork. Cut a circle of baking paper the same size as the tart and place it on top of the pastry. Tip in the baking beans and put the tart tin in the oven for 20 minutes to blind bake the pastry.
- Leave the pastry to cool for 5 minutes then spread over the strawberry jam and set the tart to one side.
- Add the butter, caster sugar and golden syrup to a saucepan and melt together over a low heat.
- Once melted, remove from the heat and stir the cornflakes in. Mixing well to combine all the ingredients.
- Tip the cornflake filling on top of the pastry tart, use a spatula to spread the filling evenly over the pastry.
- Return the cornflake tart to the oven for 5 minutes.
- Serve with custard.
Notes
- You can use a sheet of ready rolled shortcrust pastry, a ready made sweet pastry case or make your own shortcrust pastry.
- Recipe for homemade shortcrust pastry is in the main blog post above.
- Strawberry jam is traditional but you can use any jam you like.
- Storage: The Cornflake Tart will keep for 3-4 days in the fridge.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 325Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 3gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 11mgSodium: 81mgCarbohydrates: 40gFiber: 1gSugar: 28gProtein: 1g
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