Crostata Con La Crema or Custard Tart- Daring Bakers Challenge for November 2010

Hi Everyone,
  I'm back with my late submission for daring baker's challenge. Although I completed the challenge before I left Germany, I couldn't post it on time. So here I'm post it late after coming back from India.
  This month challenge is from Simona of briciole. She challenged us to make Crostata( tart) with her own recipe and use any filling of our choice. Crostata is a Italian dessert, it's basically a tart with fruit or cream filling.
For me the queen of all tarts would be the one and only custard tart, I never enjoyed any other tart so much as a custard tart. Simona also gave us a few ideas for the filling also, I used her pastry cream filling which was simply fabulous. Her pastry also worked very well, I consider this as the best of all the tarts I made so far. The pastry and the cream everything was just in the right consistency except that I break some edges of the tart. Thank you Simona for giving us this lovely challenge.

Preparation Time: 40 minutes
Cooking Time: 50 minutes+ cooling time
Serves 8

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
Wholemeal or plain flour- 235 g / 8 1/4 oz
Caster sugar- 75 g / 3 oz
Unsalted cold butter- 115 g / 4 oz
Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp
1 large egg and a egg yolk
a pinch of salt

For the pastry cream:
Milk- 500 ml / 20 oz
Sugar- 65 g / 2 oz
Plain flour- 3 tbsp
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
2 large eggs
Grated nutmeg- 1 tsp

Method:
Prepare the pastry:
Sift the flour and salt in a large bowl. whisk together the egg in a small bowl. Add the sugar to the flour mixture and mix well. Add the butter cut into cubes in the flour mixture and work with your hands gently until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Finally add the egg and bring the dough together. Flatten the dough, wrap it in a cling film and refrigerate for minimum of two hours or overnight.
Prepare the pastry cream:

Whisk together the egg and sugar until it resembles very pale and creamy. Add the flour to the egg mixture and whisk well until it gets incorporated. Heat the milk and extract in a pan until it reaches just under boiling point. Pour the milk little by little into the egg mixture and whisk well. Return the mixture to  the heat again and keep stirring well until it becomes thick custard. Pour the custard in a bowl and cover the top with cling film to avoid forming film on top. Allow the filling to cool completely, you can make it the previous day and store it in the refrigerator.
Assemble the tart:

Preheat the oven to 180 degree celsius.
Take the dough out from the refrigerator, roll it out between two cling film or parchment paper. Gently place the rolled dough in a greased tart tin. Press the edges down. Prick with a fork all over the dough. Trim all the dough in the sides. Place a parchment paper on top of the dough and fill with baking beans. Blind bake for 5 minutes.
Allow it to cool completely. Pour the custard inside the tart case. I made few decorations using the remaining dough which is totally optional. Sprinkle the grated nutmeg on top. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown on sides.
Let it cool down for a while and serve it into wedges.