Recipe Corner - "Maids of Honour"

As promised, "The Anxious Clown" blog isn't just going to be about games, books or moaning, I love to cook and I thought I'd share a few recipes here instead, including this one that's perfect to try out this weekend (assuming you can get hold of any flour during third lockdown!)

Most of the recipes I'll be sharing on the blog will have a bit of a story to it, and this one in particular is linked with strong memories of my late Nan, who was born in 1921 (yep 100 years ago this year, phew!) and taught me just about everything I know about baking and cooking. 

These were often made on a sunday, and often served as a dessert with our evening meal, lashed with custard and quite often with plenty left over for the rest of the week. Obviously not great if you have a nut allergy but if you love a marzipan / frangipan type of bun, these are perfect!

Maids of Honour (Makes 12)

Pastry

150g Plain Flour

1 egg yolk, beaten

85g Butter or Marg

20g ground almonds

1 level tablespoon of icing sugar

25g caster sugar

50ml Milk

Topping

30g Butter or Marg

50g Caster Sugar

1 Level Tablespoon Plain Flour

2 egg yolks

100g ground almonds

1 tablespoon milk

Lemon or orange zest (if liked)

Filling

Usually I use Raspberry Jam but you can also use lemon curd or nutella / chocolate spread.

Method

Pastry first. Sift the flour into a large mixing bown, add the butter or marg and rub in to a breadcrumb consistency. Add the ground almonds, icing sugar and caster sugar and stir in. Finally add the milk and the egg yolk to form a stiff but pliant (matron) dough. 

Roll out the dough and use a circular pastry cutter to make 12 rounds to fit a tart or bun tray (1/2 cm thick but basically roll the dough as thin as you can get it without making holes in it!)

Grease your bun tray with a little butter / marg in each round, then press each pastry round into the bun tin. Blind bake for about 5 mins in the oven, then take out to cool.

Once cooled, add a little of your preferred filling to each tart, taking care not to overfill.  

Topping

This is the fun messy bit. Combine all topping ingredients in a mixing bowl and cream together to form a nice gooey cakey topping. Now, you can get posh here and pipe your topping onto each tartlet, or you can just do what I do, dollop it on with a spoon and smooth it down to form a 'seal' over your filling, snugly keeping it all within the boundaries of your tart case (or again, like me, just piling it on top!)

Pop them back into the oven for between 12-15 minutes, or until a sharp knife comes out clean when inserted into the topping. 

Either top each bun with icing (if you've got a really sweet tooth) for a Bakewell Tart-like experience, or stick an almond flake on each one. 

Serve either as they are or with a huge amount of custard!

Thanks Nan!