HONEY & GINGER CUSTARD BRÛLÉE PIE

Inspired by the amazing ginger brûlée morsels from Sydney’s Bourke Street Bakery, this pie is creamy and crunchy with a delicious hit of spice. If you don’t have a brûlée blowtorch you can caramelise the pie under a very hot grill.

370g ginger nut biscuits (about 1½ packets)

100g butter (preferably unsalted), melted then cooled

175g (½ cup) honey 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

600ml cream

110g crystallised ginger, chopped

6 egg yolks

3 teaspoons cornflour

55g (¼ cup) caster sugar

Place ginger nuts in a food processor and pulse to crumbs. Add butter and pulse again to combine.

Press crumb mixture into the base and side of a 24cm loose-based tart tin. Freeze for 1 hour.

Put honey, vanilla, cream and ginger in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to just below boiling point, stirring to combine. Set aside 30 minutes to allow flavour to infuse.

Heat oven to 150°C. Whisk egg yolks with cornflour in a heatproof bowl until pale coloured.

Return cream mixture to a simmer then pour it over the egg yolks and stir to combine. Transfer to a clean saucepan and cook over a medium-low heat, stirring constantly for 6 minutes or until custard has thickened.

Strain through a fine sieve into a clean bowl, pressing down to extract as much flavour as possible from the ginger.

Pour into biscuit case and bake 30 minutes or until custard is set at the edge but has a distinct wobble in the centre. Cool pie to room temperature then chill 4 hours or until completely cold.

Scatter caster sugar over the top then caramelise with a kitchen blowtorch before serving. Serves 8