Maids of Honour Tarts

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-hole shallow bun tin or tartlet tin
• •7-8cm round pastry cutter
• •Rolling pin
• •Mixing bowl
• •Fine grater for nutmeg and lemon zest

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the oven and butter the tin

   Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan. Butter the holes of a 12-hole bun tin or shallow tartlet tin generously, getting into the corners. Puff pastry releases more easily from a well-buttered tin, and you will thank yourself later when the tarts come out clean.

   If you only have a deeper muffin tin, the tarts will work but you'll get less of the open, domed look. Shallow is better here.
2. 2

   Roll and cut the pastry

   On a lightly floured surface, roll the puff pastry to about 3mm thick. Not paper thin, but thin enough to puff and crisp rather than turn doughy. Cut twelve circles with a 7 to 8cm round cutter and press each one gently into a hole in the tin, settling it in without stretching. Stretched pastry shrinks back as it bakes, and you'll lose the cup. Slide the lined tin into the fridge while you make the filling. Cold pastry puffs better than warm.

3. 3

   Make the filling

   In a bowl, beat together the curd cheese, sugar, ground almonds, egg yolks, lemon zest, brandy if you're using it, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. The mixture should be soft, fragrant, pale gold. Taste it. It should be sweet, but with the lemon and almond clearly there. If the curd cheese was a bit bland, give it more zest. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract.

   If your curd cheese or ricotta looks at all wet, sit it in a sieve lined with muslin for an hour first. Wet filling makes soggy pastry, and there's no recovering from that.
4. 4

   Fill and bake

   Take the tin from the fridge and spoon a generous teaspoon of filling into each pastry case. Three-quarters full, no more. The mixture rises and domes as it bakes, and you don't want it spilling over the edges. Bake for eighteen to twenty-two minutes, until the pastry edges have gone golden and the tops are puffed, domed and lightly cracked. The kitchen will smell of warm almonds and lemon. Trust your nose. It knows before the timer does.

5. 5

   Cool in the tin, then lift

   Take the tin out and leave the tarts to settle for ten minutes. The filling is too soft to move straightaway, but it firms as it cools into something almost custardy. Lift each tart out gently with the tip of a knife. Dust with icing sugar if you like, though they don't really need it. Eat warm, with strong tea.

Chef Tips

• •Curd cheese is the traditional filling, but it has gone scarce on supermarket shelves. Ricotta works well if you drain it overnight in a sieve lined with muslin. Better still, make your own: bring a litre of whole milk to a near-boil with a pinch of salt, take it off the heat and stir in two tablespoons of lemon juice, let it curdle for ten minutes, then strain through muslin for half an hour. What you get tastes of nothing but fresh, sweet milk, which is exactly what these tarts want.
• •Don't fill the cases more than three-quarters full. The mixture domes as it bakes and you'll get a mess if you're greedy. They're meant to look generous, not overflowing.
• •They're best within a few hours of baking, while the pastry still has its bite. By the next day they've gone softer. Still good, just different. Eat them warm if you can, with strong tea, and you'll understand why they've lasted five hundred years.

Advance Preparation

• •The tin can be lined with pastry circles up to 24 hours ahead and kept covered in the fridge.
• •The filling can be made a day ahead and refrigerated. Give it a stir before spooning into the cases.
• •The tarts are best baked on the day you eat them. Reheating softens the pastry, so plan to bake just before tea.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 65g)