Neenish Tart

Ingredients

Sweet shortcrust

• 250 gplain flour
• 50 gicing sugar
• 150 gcold butter, cubed
• 1egg yolk
• 2 tbspiced water
• 1 pinchsalt

Mock cream

• 125 gbutter, softened
• 125 gcaster sugar
• 2 tbspmilk
• 2 tbspboiling water
• 1 tspvanilla extract

Jam layer

• 6 tbspraspberry jam, warmed and sieved

Two-tone icing

• 300 gicing sugar, sifted, divided in two
• 2 tbspboiling water, plus a little more
• 2 tspcocoa powder for the dark half
• ½ tspvanilla for the white half

Directions

1. Rub the butter into the flour, icing sugar and salt until it looks like breadcrumbs, then bind with the yolk and iced water, bring it together in one or two folds and chill for 30 minutes; overworking makes a tough shell.
2. Roll the pastry to 3 mm, cut 12 rounds and press them into a shallow patty tin, then chill again for 15 minutes so they hold their shape in the oven.
3. Prick the bases, line with paper and baking beans, and blind bake at 180°C (350°F) for 12 minutes, then remove the beans and bake 6 to 8 minutes more until the bases are dry, sandy and pale gold. Cool completely in the tin.
4. For the mock cream, beat the butter and caster sugar together for a full 8 to 10 minutes until white and greatly increased in volume; this long beating is the whole trick, since it dissolves the sugar crystals into the fat.
5. Combine the milk and boiling water and dribble it into the beating butter a teaspoon at a time, waiting for each addition to be absorbed before adding the next. Add it too fast and the mixture will split into a curdled mess.
6. Beat in the vanilla, then spoon a teaspoon of sieved jam into each cold shell and pipe or spoon the mock cream on top, doming it slightly and smoothing the surface flat with a hot wet palette knife.
7. Make both icings to a thick pouring consistency, stiff enough to hold a line: mix half the icing sugar with the cocoa and enough boiling water to loosen, and the other half with vanilla and water.
8. Chill the tarts 20 minutes so the cream is firm, then ice one half of each with chocolate icing, working up to an imaginary centre line, let it set 10 minutes, and ice the other half white. Set at room temperature for an hour before serving.

Technique

• The half-and-half icing is the entire identity of the tart, and it must be a clean straight division. Chill the cream first, use a small palette knife, and do the dark side before the white so any smudging is easier to cover.
• Mock cream exists because it was invented for a time when dairy cream was expensive and unreliable in hot weather; it is stable at room temperature and does not weep, which real whipped cream would.
• The origin is genuinely disputed. The most repeated story places it in Grong Grong, New South Wales, around 1913 with a Ruby Neenish, but the name also appears earlier in Australian and New Zealand papers and the case is not settled.
• Sugar that has not fully dissolved in the mock cream leaves a gritty texture. If it feels sandy after ten minutes of beating, add a teaspoon more hot water and keep going.

Substitutions

• No time for pastry: bought sweet tart shells are widely used and the mock cream and icing carry the tart anyway.
• Whipped cream or a Swiss meringue buttercream can stand in for mock cream, though neither is traditional and cream will not hold at room temperature.
• Apricot jam is a common alternative to raspberry, and some bakeries leave the jam out entirely.

Variations

• The pink and white version, with a rose or strawberry-tinted icing in place of chocolate, is standard in Queensland bakeries.
• Some versions divide the icing diagonally rather than straight across.
• A New Zealand variation fills the tart with a lemon-flavoured mock cream.

History

Recorded in Australian cookery from the early 1900s, its odd name and origin still disputed between towns.

Frequently asked questions

What is Neenish Tart?

Neenish Tart is a bread & pastry from Australia: small tart of jam and mock cream iced half brown, half white. Recorded in Australian cookery from the early 1900s, its odd name and origin still disputed between towns.

How long does Neenish Tart take to make?

Neenish Tart takes 50 min of preparation and 20 min baking plus 1 hr setting of cooking. The recipe makes 12 tarts. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Neenish Tart?

Yes, within limits. No time for pastry: bought sweet tart shells are widely used and the mock cream and icing carry the tart anyway. Whipped cream or a Swiss meringue buttercream can stand in for mock cream, though neither is traditional and cream will not hold at room temperature. Apricot jam is a common alternative to raspberry, and some bakeries leave the jam out entirely.

What is the most important thing to get right in Neenish Tart?

For the mock cream, beat the butter and caster sugar together for a full 8 to 10 minutes until white and greatly increased in volume; this long beating is the whole trick, since it dissolves the sugar crystals into the fat.