Almond and Berry Tarts

This recipe for almond and berry tarts comes from Jamie Oliver's 30-Minute Meals and honestly, the first time I made them, my guests and I were pleasantly surprised that they were so easy to make and only took a few minutes to prepare. They turned out pretty well in the end, some perhaps a little well-done...but absolutely the best dessert recipe I have ever tried.

The quickest and easiest way to go about this is to be prepared and buy ready-made pastry cases. All good supermarkets stock them. This will save you a huge amount of time and hassle especially if you're in a rush and have hungry guests!

However, if you have the time and inclination, feel free to make your own shortcrust pastry. Just click on my previous post for an easy recipe.

Almond and Berry Tarts

Ingredients:

8 small deep shortcrust pastry cases

1 egg

100g ground almonds

100g butter

90g golden caster sugar

1 orange

1 vanilla pod

Some good quality jam (strawberry or raspberry or any berry of your choice)

Method:

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

The first step is to make a frangipane mixture by combining the egg, almonds, butter and sugar into a mixing bowl.

Grate over the zest of 1/2 an orange. This gives it a bit of zing!

With a sharp-edged knife, slit the vanilla pod in half and scape the inside of the pod with the knife, removing the vanilla seeds. Add to the mixture.

Using a spoon, thoroughly mix it all together.

Now, put the pastry cases onto a baking tray.

Spoon a small teaspoon of jam into the pastry cases.

Top with a heaped teaspoon of the frangipane mixture, add another teaspoon of jam and finally another heaped teaspoon of frangipane. (Any leftover frangipane mixture can be frozen to be used for another occasion.)

Put the tray in the middle of the oven and let cook for 18-20 mins until golden. 

Serve warm with a dollop of creme fraiche or ice cream.