Lemony almond mincemeat tartlets

We are great mince pie fans, so I'm always on the lookout for a different version. Found this recipe in a Christmas pull-out from 'Prima' magagazine [from the 80s I think!] . It uses ground almonds in the pastry and it's made in a similar way to one of my favourite small cakes,Welsh cheese cake; by this I mean that you have the pastry shell, then a layer of mincemeat, then the lemon cake layer. In the Welsh cheese cake you'd have the pastry, then jam,  then cake.

This recipe makes 36 pies, but thought this was too many for us,so I halved the recipe, taking the measures to the nearest gram. This is the full recipe.

The pastry:
275g plain flour
75g icing sugar
1 tspn cinnamon
175g butter
50g ground almonds
1 egg yolk

45ml milk

450g jar mincemeat

For the cake filling:

115g butter or margarine
115g caster sugar
175g sr flour
2 large eggs
grated rind of a lemon

Icing:
115g icing sugar
15ml lemon juice

Preheat oven 190C/375F/gas 5

Make the pastry by putting the flour and cinnamon in a bowl and rubbing in the butter. Add the ground almonds then mix in the egg and milk to make a soft dough. Chill the dough in the fridge for half an hour, wrapped in cling film. Then roll out the dough and cut out 36 circles to line bun tins. Put a teaspoonful of mincemeat in each pastry case.

Make the cake by beating all the ingredients together till nice and smooth. It's just a good old sponge mixture.Spoon on top of the mincemeat then smooth the tops. Bake for 20-30 mins till golden. Cool on a wire rack.

I'm not sure that I'd have bothered about the icing if my dil hadn't been here and wanted to do it! I'd have happy with some sifted icing sugar on top. So she did the fancy lines on top by mixing the icing sugar and lemon juice and putting it into an icing bag with a small hole cut out of one corner.

These little pies are really delicious. A great Christmas offering. Next time I'll make the full 36, just with icing sugar on top!

Lemon and almond tarts

I've invited an old school friend for tea tomorrow, so wanted to make something nice for her.

Found this recipe in one of my Mum's old cookery books, and as I had my dil here this afternoon, and she's doing a cake decorating class, they seemed just the thing. I've changed the ozs into grams. and it worked fine.

Makes 12 little tarts
212 g packet shortcrust pastry [I used Just Rol}
50g butter
50g caster sugar
1 large egg
59g ground almonds
drop of almond essence [not the almond flavouring]
1 rounded tbspn sr flour
grated rind of 1/2 lemon
1 tspn lemon juice [I put in a bit more as I wanted them to be lemony]
icing:
150g icing sugar
drop lemon food colouring
lemon juice

Preheat oven 190C/375F/gas5

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface,and then cut out 12 rounds with a cutter to fit a bun tin.
Cream the butter and sugar then beat in the egg and ground almonds.
Stir in the almond essence, flour, lemon rind and juice.
Divide this evenly between the pastry cases and bake for 20-25 mins till the sponge is golden and the pastry is cooked.
Cool on a wire rack.
Icing:
Sift 125g of the icing sugar into a bowl and mix with enough cold water to make a thick icing.
Spread over the tarts and allow to set. Leave any left over icing in the bowl.
Add the rest of the icing sugar [25g] too the bowl and mix in a little colouring and enough lemon juice to make a thick icing.
Fill a small icing bag and pipe a lattice on top of each cake. Leave to set.

There's no real need to do the yellow piping - any decoration would do, but I had my dil to do it for me!

The glass plate they're on is one of my Grandmother's. I'd forgotten all about her glass plates till I saw a similar one in a local shop, so I hunted out the box in the attic.

Zingy lemon bars

Had a couple of lemons left in the fruit bowl so thought I'd make a cake. Didn't want to make my usual drizzle cake, so found this recipe in an old copy of a French magazine.

I did a very stupid thing and opened the oven to check that the cake hadn't overcooked - so of course it's now sunk in the middle! I still haven't got the measure of this gas cooker - several things I've cooked lately have been overcooked, hence the checking of the cake! That's my excuse anyway!

Bottom of cake
125g plain flour
pinch salt
35g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter
2 drops vanilla extract

Topping
2 medium eggs
170g caster sugar
grated zest and juice of a large lemon
1 tbspn plain flour
1/2 tspn bicarb. of soda
icing sugar to dust

Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F
Grease a 20cm square cake tin.

Put flour, icing sugar and salt in a food processor and mix. Add the butter and vanilla extract and blitz till the mixture becomes a soft dough.
Press this evenly into the bottom of the cake tin and prick with a fork.
Bake for 12-15 mins till it's lightly golden and firmish.
Leave to cool in tin.

Whisk the eggs with a hand mixer till frothy and gradually whisk in the sugar till thick and foamy. Whisk in the lemon juice and zest then the flour and bicarb.
Pour this over the bottom and bake for 20-25 mins till golden brown.

Leave to cool in the tin and then cut into 12 pieces. Dust with icing sugar.

It has a good lemony tang and I like the crunchy base.

Lemon yoghurt cake

Inspired by my friend Lynn on http://www.lynnscookingblog.com/ I decided to make a cake. This is a recipe from my Mum's handwritten notebook and is in ounces.

Here's the recipe:

4oz butter
6oz caster sugar
3 eggs
finely grated lemon zest
6floz natural yoghurt
8oz sr flour
2oz chopped dried apricots

preheat oven 325F/160C.gas 3
grease a 2 lb loaf tin

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time and beat well between each.
Gently fold in the lemon zest, flour and apricots.
Spoon into the tin and bake for about 35 - 40 mins rill golden.
Cool on a wire rack.

This is delicious with a yoghurt topping - mix 1 tbspn natural yoghurt with 3 oz icing sugar. Spread over top of cake when cold and sprinkle with some more grated lemon rind.
I found this icing very thin and it ran down the sides of the cake. Think I'd use more icing sugar next time.

Talking of icing sugar, this is my French icing sugar. I love the container. They make a special container every January for the New Year. This is just the normal one.

Here's the mixture ready to be cooked.

The top of the cake cracked because my oven is useless! I've got a thermometer in it, but even when it's the required temperature things burn!

Now all we have to do is eat it!