Milk Tart

For the pastry: Sift the flour and icing sugar into a bowl. Cut the butter into cubes, then gently rub it into the flour and sugar until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and the salt, gently work it together using your hands, then add the milk to bring it into a scruffy ball. Don't overwork it or it will become elastic and chewy rather than crumbly and short. Wrap in cling film, then chill for 30 minutes. Lightly oil the inside of a deep 24-cm non-stick, loose-bottomed tart tin. Dust a clean surface and a rolling pin with flour, then roll out the pastry to 1/2 cm thick, dusting with flour if required. Loosely roll the pastry around the rolling pin, then unroll over the tart tin, pushing it into the sides. Trim off any excess and use it to patch any holes, prick the base all over with a fork, then pop into the freezer for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Loosely criss-cross 2 large pieces of baking paper over the pastry case. Fill up with uncooked rice or ceramic baking beans, loosely fold in the paper, then bake blind for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, lift out the baking paper and rice or beans, saving them for next time. Return the pastry case to the oven for 10 minutes, or until almost biscuit-like, then remove. Meanwhile, for the filling: Pour the milk into a small pan, halve the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds, then add both seeds and pod to the milk. Gently simmer for 15 minutes, then remove from the heat and stir in the butter to melt. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the cornflour, flour and sugar, then, when the milk has cooled a little, gradually whisk it into the egg mixture. Tip back into the pan and place over a low heat for 5–10 minutes, or until thickened, whisking constantly, then discard the vanilla pod. Pour into the pastry case and dust with the ground cinnamon through a sieve from a height. Bake for 20 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. For an optional extra, just before serving make a caramel topping. Melt the sugar with a splash of water in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat until lightly golden — do not stir — then pour over the tart. Cool fully at room temperature, then tap and crack the caramel and serve.