Cherry & almond tarts

These mini Bakewell bites combine pastry and cake are designed for making in batches and cooking from frozen

  • Prep:15 mins
    Cook:40 mins
  • Serves 12
  • Easy

Nutrition per serving

  • kcal 362
  • fat 20g
  • saturates 9g
  • carbs 39g
  • sugars 23g
  • fibre 1g
  • protein 6g
  • salt 0.5g

Ingredients

  • 375g pack all-butter puff pastry
  • 75g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 12 rounded tsp morello cherry jam
  • 75g plain sponge or Madeira cakes
  • 100g butter, softened
  • 75g ground almonds
  • 75g golden caster sugar
  • 2 medium eggs
  • ½ tsp almond extract
  • 25g flaked almonds
  • 100g icing sugar, sieved to decorate

Tip

Don't want to freeze?
If you want to bake the tarts without freezing them first, the cooking time and temperature is the same – but make sure you roll your pastry thinly or the tarts may puff up too much. Alternatively, use sweet shortcrust pastry.

Method

  1. Very thinly roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface. Stamp out 12 x 9cm circles with a fluted cutter, if you have one, and use to line a bun tin. Spread 1 rounded tsp of the cherry jam in the bottom of each tart.

  2. Whizz the cake to crumbs in a food processor, then tip into a mixing bowl and add the flour, butter, ground almonds, caster sugar, eggs and almond extract. Beat together until smooth, then divide between the tarts, spreading a little with the back of a teaspoon to cover the jam. Scatter over the flaked almonds and openfreeze for 2 hrs, then wrap well in cling film and freeze for up to 2 months.

  3. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 with a baking sheet in it. Unwrap the tarts from the freezer and loosely top with a sheet of foil. Bake on the heated baking sheet for 30-40 mins until golden, removing the foil halfway. Cool the tarts a little, then add a splash of water into the icing sugar to make a runny icing. Drizzle over the tarts and leave to set.

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