Gypsy Tart

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Who knows what it is?

I'll tell you before I get into trouble! It's a pastry case with a butter, muscovado sugar and evaporated milk filling. From the Isle of Sheppy, Kent. Legend has it that an elderly local woman felt for the undernourished gypsy children and baked it to fatten them up.

I have never seen of heard of it outside of Kent, has anyone else?

The UK has lots of regional dishes but most do seem to have escaped and become known, if not popular, in other regions.

Does your region have something I might not have heard of?

I've heard of it - Derbyshire.

Ever heard of an Oliver biscuit?

Buchts - little bread roll type thingies stuffed to bursting with jam. Regional thing from my mum’s little hometown in Poland. It’s the only place I’ve ever had them!

I've never lived in Kent but know what gypsy tart is. I've lived in London and Bucks

Ooh - do you have a recipe? Sounds lovely.

Gypsy Tart

Thanks BIWI, but the link's broken.

I've heard of it OP - I'm sure it's in the old Be-Ro baking book. I'm not at home at the moment though so I can't check. It's either that or the Dairy Diary.

How about a wet Nellie

That's the super-enticing name of a pudding from my home town of Liverpool. I've never actually had it though!

www.foodsofengland.co.uk/wetnelly.htm

Definitely heard of Gypsy Tart. I'm a lot further north too.

Manchester tart. Pastry case spread with raspberry or strawberry jam, filled with custard and sprinkled with coconut flakes. Love it but you don't see it often these days.

Butter Pie 😋

Well known in Reading Berkshire

we used to have it at school in kent. one of my favourites. didnt realise it was a regional thing

All the way up here in dundee and my mum makes them, to be fair she hadn't heard of them until her brother, who had lived in Kent for many years, came home and lived with her for a while!

They are gorgeous!

I know what Gypsy Tart is and mourn for the version I had in the 80s that was so sickly sweet it stuck to your teeth.
The version I have tried recently is airy and light

I've heard of Gypsy Tart and have a mental note to make it. I think it HAS to be muscovado sugar though. Wasn't there an issue many years ago when it was promoted by some cook or other, and then people were substituting different sugar and it didn't work? Poor cook got it in the neck!

I grew up in Kent eating it as part of school lunches. Tbh I never liked it, I found it sickly and I had a seriously sweet tooth as a child.

I’m not sure if this is a Kent thing or not, but when I was a child in the summer when the strawberries were in season my grandparents and their siblings used to like to mash them up with white bread, butter and sugar, pour cream over the results and eat it.

I didn't know this was a regional dish, either!

We used to have it for afters in the 70s for school dinners. It used to be my favourite!

I love gypsy tart, try not to eat it often. One of my favourite sweet treats.

I know what it is. grew up in South London. Had it at school. Hated it!

South London - it was a school desert. Absolutely awful.

I grew up in Surrey and we had gypsy tart for school dinners

It was a school dessert in Hampshire too. My mum tried to make but used something wrong, maybe the wrong sugar?

Never heard of it. I’m partial to a Manchester tart though. Yum!

Gypsy Tart - trying again!

A lunch time favourite at my school in Kent. It was apparently created by a school dinner cook from ingredients easily available, in order to boost the calorie intake of the local gypsy children.