Damson Curd Tarts with Elderflower Oat Cream and Cinnamon Shortbread Pastry
Soft British Hedgerow Meets Quiet Pudding Elegance
Table of Contents
- ✨ Before We Begin…
- Watch It Being Made
- Watch It Being Made
- The Cook’s Mind
- A Note on Origin
- Ingredient Focus: Damsons
- My Favourite Way To Eat
- Serving Suggestions
- Multi-Purpose Recipe
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- What Will You Learn Whilst Making This Recipe?
- Handpicked to Go With This One
- Waste Less: How To Use Up Your Ingredient Stash!
- Damson Curd Tarts with Elderflower Oat Cream and Cinnamon Shortbread Pastry Recipe
✨ Before We Begin…
These are quiet tarts — the kind you make for the joy of doing things slowly. Each element has its own rhythm: pastry to chill, cream to settle, fruit to simmer. When spooned together, they become something delicate and full of care. This is hedgerow cooking — soft, summery, and made to be shared.
Watch It Being Made
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‘Must be best food offer, of any genre, in Kendal. Hugely accomplished cooking and very much recommended.’
Tony P, Kendal; Food Customer
The Cook’s Mind
Make-Ahead
- All three elements can be made a day in advance.
- The tart cases keep well in a tin; cream and curd hold in the fridge.
Freezer-Friendly
- Raw pastry dough freezes well; baked shells also freeze if wrapped carefully.
- The oat cream and damson curd are best made fresh or kept chilled.
Rescue Mission – What To Do When Things Go Wrong
- Curd too thick? Loosen gently with warm water until spoonable.
- Oat cream gritty? Keep whisking gently over low heat — the cornflour must fully cook.
- Pastry shrinking? Chill well before baking and press gently, not firmly.
Key Substitutions
- Use plums or blackcurrants instead of damsons.
- Swap elderflower cordial for vanilla, lemon zest, or orange blossom.
- Use a simple shortcrust base if you prefer to skip the cinnamon biscuit feel.
Cooking Parlance
- “Pourably soft” = warm enough to spread itself but not run.
- “Blind bake” = bake tart shells with parchment and baking beans to help them hold shape.
A Note on Origin
These tarts were made slowly, outdoors and over time — each element prepped in its own moment, then brought together in a quiet kind of ceremony. The damsons came from a foraged haul, the pastry from memory, the cream from gentle experimentation. This is a two-spoon dessert — or one, unapologetically.
Ingredient Focus: Damsons
Damsons are dark and difficult — too sharp to eat raw, but brilliant when transformed. Once softened and sweetened, they become satin in a spoon, with a tang that lingers like late summer on the tongue.
✨ Violet tang — hedgerow magic softened into velvet.
My Favourite Way To Eat
Late in the afternoon, shared with a soulmate or eaten solo by a window. Forks tapping pastry. The cream cool against the warmth of the curd. Georgia asleep beside you. A tart that doesn’t ask for attention — but somehow gets it anyway.
Serving Suggestions
- Serve with herbal tea or chilled elderflower cordial.
- Decorate with mint leaves, edible flowers or crumbled nuts.
- Dust with icing sugar just before serving.
Multi-Purpose Recipe
This recipe has more than one life…
The tarts are lovely as a pair — but their components travel well to other plates.
- Spoon the damson curd over porridge or pancakes.
- Use the elderflower oat cream in breakfast jars or with roasted plums.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
It’s romantic, sensory, and gently made. The flavours are balanced and seasonal — each bite a quiet celebration of summer hedgerows and the joy of slow assembly. A dessert to pause over.
What Will You Learn Whilst Making This Recipe?
You’ll learn how to make and blind bake pastry, how to thicken curd with care, and how to assemble layers that feel both rustic and refined. You’ll practise restraint — and see how softness can hold structure.
Handpicked to Go With This One
A few recipes that play well together — flavour friends, not just neighbours.
Waste Less: How To Use Up Your Ingredient Stash!
Got something spare — a handful, a spoonful, or the end of a packet? These tags help you find other ways to use it. It’s a small step toward cooking intuitively and wasting less❣️
almonds, butter, elderflower cordial, ground cinnamon, lemon juice, oat milk, oats, plain flour, plums, soft light brown sugar, vanilla extract, wholemeal flour
Damson Curd Tarts with Elderflower Oat Cream and Cinnamon Shortbread Pastry Recipe
Damson Curd Tarts with Elderflower Oat Cream and Cinnamon Shortbread Pastry
These tarts were born outside — separate elements brought together into two elegant little puddings.These are layered tarts combining a shortbread-style cinnamon pastry, a mellow elderflower cream, and a spoon-soft damson curd. The result is crisp, creamy, and slightly sharp — a hedgerow pudding that feels both romantic and grounded.
Photographed truthfully. If you cook it, yours will look like mine.
Ingredients
Ingredients for Cinnamon Shortbread Tart Pastry
- 40 g plain flour
- 40 g wholemeal flour
- 20 g light soft brown sugar
- 50 g butter
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp cold water | as required
Ingredients for Elderflower Oat Cream
- 200 ml oat milk | unsweetened; you could use soy unsweetened
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 15 g very finely milled oats
- 1 tbsp ground almonds
- 1 tsp elderflower cordial
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp light soft brown sugar
Ingredients for Damson Curd
- 125 g damsons | weight with stones in
- 3 tbsp water
- 10 g light soft brown sugar | you might need more; sweeten to taste
- 1 tsp fresh lemon zest
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ tbsp cornflour
- 1 tbsp water | for the cornflour slurry
- ½ tbsp butter
Decorative Ingredients
- 2 units pansy flower
- 4-6 units tiny mint leaves
Instructions
Method for the Cinnamon Shortbread Tart Pastry
- Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl.40 g wholemeal flour, 20 g light soft brown sugar, ¼ tsp ground cinnamon, 1 pinch salt, 40 g plain flour
- Rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until it resembles fine crumbs.50 g butter
- Add cold water, just until the dough holds together. Mix gently, just until the dough comes together — no need to overwork.Flatten into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.1 tsp cold water
- Roll to 3mm thickness, line your tart tins (having greased them first), trim, and chill again for 15 minutes.At this time, roll out the remaining pastry and press out some little biscuits (for eating and for bashing into crumbs to dress the dish).
- Prick the bases with a fork, line with foil and add baking beans. Blind bake at 170℃ fan (190℃ conventional) for 8 minutes.Remove the foil and beans and continue cooking for 8 more minutes. The pastry should be crisp and dry to the touch. And the kitchen should smell of cooked pastry!
Method for the Elderflower Oat Cream
- Put the ingredients listed into a jug and wait for 15 minutes.200 ml oat milk, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp lemon zest
- Put the listed ingredients into a pan with the ingredients from the previous step, mix and heat slowly to thicken.15 g very finely milled oats, 1 tbsp ground almonds, 1 tsp elderflower cordial, 1 pinch salt, 1 tsp light soft brown sugar
- Pour into a container, cover and surface with clingfilm to avoid a skin forming.
Method for the Damson Curd
- Wash the damsons. On a low heat with the water, cook the damsons gently until they are very soft and the water and the fruit have become one. It takes a couple of minutes.125 g damsons, 3 tbsp water
- Tip the damsons into a sieve over a bowl and with a metal spoon, press the damsons through the sieve to remove the skin and the stones. Scrape the underside of the sieve gently now and then to help things along.Retain the skins if you’d like to make damson ‘leather’ later.
- Put the liquor back into the pan and gently warm through with the ingredients listed. Add a little more water if you need to.10 g light soft brown sugar, 1 pinch salt, 1 tsp fresh lemon zest
- Add the cornflour slurry and simmer very gently for a minute or two once the cornflour is in. Please keep the heat very low. At the end, melt the butter into the curd and mix through.Pour the curd into a container and cover the top with cling film to prevent a skin forming.½ tbsp cornflour, 1 tbsp water, ½ tbsp butter
Assembly
- Break one of the little biscuits you baked from the remaining pastry dough into a fine crumb. You could grate to get the crumb very fine. In the photo, I'd made a second type of biscuit with a darker colour, so I had a few darker crumbs but you don't need to go to that trouble. Or a handful of broken nuts works just as well for a final scattering.
- Using the cooked tart shells, spoon the oat cream evenly bettween the two tart cases. Pipe it in if you wish (easier).
- Heat the curd through, adding a splash of water to loosen. The goal is to make it 'pourably' soft again, not hot.Just have a think for a second before you do it. You want to pass a spoon of curd over the top of the cream without disturbing the cream. The curd needs to be warm so it levels off properly. Divide the warmed curd between the tarts, letting it settle softly over the cream.
- Place each tart on a large plate, arrange some crumbs artfully, add a mint leaf and a single flower.2 units pansy flower, 4-6 units tiny mint leaves
Nutrition
Calories: 555kcalCarbohydrates: 67gProtein: 8gFat: 29gSaturated Fat: 5gPolyunsaturated Fat: 8gMonounsaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 4gSodium: 424mgPotassium: 272mgFiber: 5gSugar: 32gVitamin A: 425IUVitamin C: 8mgCalcium: 227mgIron: 3mg
Nutritional values are estimates only and will vary depending on specific ingredients used. Nutrition is per serving. Information is for the main recipe, not optional accompaniments.
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COPYRIGHT
© The Golden Polar Bear, 2025. Recipes and photography by Julia Savory. If you share this, please pass it along with kindness and if possible share a link back to this site. #ForTheAnimals
Photographed truthfully. If you cook it, yours will look like mine.
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