Filbert Tartlets

Making pastry (or baking in general) is probably not advised when London is at the outset of a heat wave, but I'm committed to this 2019 resolution, so I avoided towelled off to avoid sweating into this weeks bake of Filbert Tartlets.

No-one I've spoken to, myself included, had any idea what filberts were - according to the recipe, they're simply hazelnuts.

I began by making the pastry which was a challenge in the heat as pastry likes to be kept cool. The margarine almost melted into the flour. I tried to barely touch the mixture and kept running my hands & wrists under the cold water tap to stay as cool as possible.

Next was the mixture. It asked for 1 part cornflour to 2 parts single cream, and then heat it until it boils. I got stuck here as the mixture never even reached boiling point, it just started to turn to a gel like consistency (due to cornflour's thickening power - it's used a lot to thicken sauces.) I actually had to make this cornflour/cream mixture twice.

After my second go, I then added the cornflour/cream mixture to the creamed egg/sugar mixture and nuts I had prepared, then poured it straight into the waiting cases (as you can see, I ran out of foil tartlet cases, then I ran out of pastry.

The recipe suggested to put a cross of pastry on top as decoration, but by this point I was dangerously sweating & I didn't trust the sorry scraps of pastry left over, so I for-goed the decoration and the dredging of caster sugar and just popped them straight in the oven!

Once baked, the tartlets rose out of their cases a little which was unexpected. Maybe there was too much air in them. But they browned nicely.

The flavour is distinctly nutty, but light, like a nuttier battenburg with thin pastry. Not bad in my opinion.

Filbert Tartlets

30ml/2 tbsp cornflour

60ml/4 tbsp single cream or creamy milk

2 eggs

75g caster sugar

75g shelled filberts (hazelnuts), skinned and chopped

25g ground almonds

100g plain flour

1/4tsp salt

50g margarine

flour for rolling

Set the oven to 200C/gas 6. To make the pastry, sift the flour and salt into a bowl, then rub in the margarine until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add enough cold water to make a stiff dough. Press the dough together with your fingertips. Roll out on a lightly-floured surface and use to line twelve 3in patty tins.

In a saucepan, mix the cornflour to a paste with the cream or milk. Stir over gentle heat until the mixture boils. Remove from the heat.

In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the chopped filberts, ground almonds and cornflour mixture. Spoon into the pastry cases.

Dredge with caster sugar. Bake for about 20minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.