Manchester Tart

Manchester tart is a jam and custard tart named after a city in northwest England. A baked tart shell is spread with raspberry jam, topped with a layer of custard and sprinkled with coconut. Decorated with a cherry on top, it is also known as a dessert that brings back memories of British school dinners.

Jam and custard in a baked shell

In one example, a dough made from flour, butter and other ingredients is used to line a tin, weighted, and baked first. Meanwhile, egg yolks, sugar and milk with cornstarch are heated to thicken the custard. Once the shell has cooled, it is spread with jam, the custard is poured in, and coconut is sprinkled over it. A single slice offers a crisp shell, soft custard and the tartness of fruit.

Bounce Back Food, a Manchester food organization, introduces a method in which raspberries are cooked with jam and spread in the tart shell, topped with custard, and finished with coconut and fresh raspberries. It also suggests that adding sliced banana between the jam and custard gives a nostalgic result. Cherries, bananas, raspberries: the fruit used on top or inside varies from maker to maker.

The baking-ingredient manufacturer IREKS describes it as a dessert that was popular in school lunches from the 1950s to the ’80s. The tart bearing Manchester’s name is also tied to memories of desserts eaten at school.

At Bury Market near Manchester, small tarts were also photographed on display at a stall in 2023.

The 19th-century Manchester pudding

19th-century cookbooks include a similarly named “Manchester pudding.” In one example from an 1859 cookbook, breadcrumbs are simmered in milk and combined with lemon zest, sugar, eggs and melted butter. A dish lined with pastry is spread with jam, and the mixture is poured over it and baked.

Beeton’s cookbook, published in 1861, has a similar method in which brandy is added before baking and the pudding is served cold. The use of jam and eggs makes it look close to today’s tart, but it is a dish in which a filling containing breadcrumbs is baked together with the pastry. When and how it connected to the current dessert, with custard layered in a baked shell, is not clear.

Glossary