I have been lazing around at home for the last week and a half over the Christmas holidays and eating myself silly. However the Christmas Pudding only lasts so long and soon you find your self cakeless with a sugar craving to cure! I decided this week to try and use all the Christmas treats left over in the fridge some nice desserts. First up was a lonely looking jar of orange curd which I made before Christmas (check out my spiced orange curd recipe here). I usually put raspberry preserve in frangipane tarts, but thought curd would work as well and it did! The frangipane recipe is Jamie Oliver’s and definitely the best!

These are actually really nice and really quick and easy. I also had leftover pastry which I used for the base of this, but even frozen pastry would be fine. Frangipane is essentially a cake mix made with ground almonds, it’s delicious. I added the cinnamon and nutmeg to add a Christmas flavour, but you can leave these out. I filled cake tins with pastry, added a spoon of curd and a spoon of frangipane and that was it! I made about 20 for a family party. Just don’t overfill the cases or they will overflow.

Ingredients:

Pastry (enough to fill 12-15 bun holes in a bun tin depending on size)

1 jar Orange Curd (or enough for 1 tsp per tartlet)

90g soft light brown sugar

100g ground almond

100g butter

1 egg

zest of 1 orange

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 – 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 – 1/2 tsp nutmeg

1. Roll out pastry, use the top of a glass to cut out circles of pastry to fill the pre-greased and lined bun tins.

2. Cream together almond, butter, sugar, egg, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg and orange zest to create your frangipane mix.

3.Put a teaspoon of orange curd on top of the pastry.

4. Put a teaspoon of frangipane on top of the curd.

5. Pop into an oven preheated at 180C for 17-20 minutes, they are done when golden on top. Be careful not to over cook.

6. Enjoy with some leftover whiskey/brandy cream!