Wow, it’s Thursday already and where’s the week gone? Last night I was making a huge batch of scones for my boss’ return from 5 months travelling. I’m honestly trying to remember what on earth I’ve been doing the rest of the week but I have such a sloppy memory I actually can’t remember!

I fell in love with Portuguese custard tarts about six years ago during a stint as a receptionist at Social Services during university summer holidays. There was quite a big influx of Portuguese migrants who set up their own little shops in town – the sort you wouldn’t go in unless you were Portuguese, the sort where everyone turns around and looks at you coming in. But I didn’t care, because I’d spied two things in this little place that I loved and ate them on a regular basis on my lunch break. One of them was stuff crabs claws (are these even traditionally Portuguese?) and the other was custard tarts.

When I stopped working there, there was a empty place in me waiting to be filled with an eggy custard filled pastry. I then discovered they serve the same egg custards at Nando’s. But I don’t like eating there because they don’t do free range chicken and so I turned to the internet to find my own recipe and not feel guilty about eating more than one (or at least not let people see how many I eat!).

With blackberries in the shops, I wanted to make something that felt distinctly autumnal and make the most of the seasonal flavours. Here I’ve taken the traditional Portuguese tart and give it my own twist with fruits and cinnamon. I used gold top milk in my custard to make it extra indulgent and rich in taste.

Making the tarts is super simple…roll out your puff pastry square and place over muffin tin hole

I have this awesome little tool to gently push pastry into the hole to stop tearing

Then add in the blackberries and custard…mmmm

20 minutes in the oven et voila! Leave to cool on a wire rack

{Makes 12 tarts}

45mins – Prep time: 25 mins – Cooking time: 20mins

Ingredients

• 1 x 500g block puff pastry
• 12 blackberries
• 220ml full fat milk (preferably gold top)
• 3tbsp cornflour
• 200g caster sugar
• 1tsp vanilla bean paste
• ½tsp ground cinnamon
• 6 free range egg yolks

Instructions

1. Grease a deep muffin tin and preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5
2. Roll out the puff pastry on a floured surface into a rectangle of roughly 4:3 ratio until it’s about 3mm deep. This is because you need to cut squares to fit the muffin tins and so mae 4 rows with 3 columns to make 12 squares.
3. I pushed the pastry into each muffin hole using my tool and then placed the tin back in the fridge to keep the pastry cool whilst making the custard.
4. Whisk the egg yolks gently in a mixing bowl and set aside.
5. In a medium sized saucepan, add the milk, sugar, cornflour, vanilla bean paste and cinnamon. Warm over a gentle heat and stir regularly until it begins to thicken, then remove from the heat.
6. Stirring the yolks constantly, gently add in half of the milk mixture bit by bit to prevent the eggs coagulating. When it’s all mixed well, whisk that mixture back into the saucepan.
7. Put the saucepan back on a gentle heat and whisk constantly until the mixture thickens again, after three minutes or so.
8. Remove muffin tin from the fridge and spoon a small tablespoon of custard into each pastry case, place a blackerry on top and then spoon another spoonful of custard on top.
9. Place muffin tin in the oven and cook for around 20 minutes until a little browned on top and the puff pastry is golden.
10. Remove the oven, leave in muffin pan for a minute or two then place them on a wire cooling rack to prevent bottom of pastry case going soft.

We’ve packed away the decorations and laid the Christmas songs to rest for another year, but what’s left in your fridge? Admittedly, I didn’t have the stilton left in the fridge, it was on the clearance shelf at the supermarket and I do so love blue cheese!

27mins – Prep time: 15mins – Cooking time: 12mins

{Makes: 12}

Ingredients

• 1 pack ready rolled puff pastry (375g)
• 180g bacon lardons
• 60g stilton
• 1/2 red onion

Instructions

Oven temp: 140°C/390°F

1. Grease 12 hole bun tin and cut out circles just larger than the holes in the tin. Gently push the circles into the holes using your knuckles.
2. Gently fry off the bacon and onions in a pan over a medium heat. The onions will cook in the lardon fat and will soften. Don’t overcook the bacon, the oven will finish the job!
3. Divide the bacon and onions evenly between the 12 holes.
4. Crumble the stilton over the tops of the tartlets.
5. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes, until the pastry starts to brown a little and the stilton has melted down.

Using onion salt instead of onion in the sausage meat stops the pastry going soggy. The expert who taught me the recipe for these sausage rolls (my very talented mother) showed me that adding a little water to the tray makes the puff pastry a little bit puffier. I find the supermarkets often sell low quality sausagemeat so I tend to buy their finest sausages, which have a higher meat content.

Ingredients

• 4 good quality thick pork sausages
• 2tsp finely chopped fresh sage
• 1tsp mixed herbs
• Pinch onion salt
• Pinch garlic granules
• Salt and pepper to season
• 1 ready rolled pack puff pastry
• Egg yolk
• Splash of milk

Instructions

1. Cut the sausages open and mix together with the sage, mixed herbs, onion salt and garlic granules then season the mixture with salt and pepper.
2. Lay out the puff pastry on a floured pastry mat.Leave room at the bottom of the mat to roll the sausagemeat.
3. Divide the sausagemeat out into thirds. Roll out one of the thirds into a long sausage on the floured mat, making it the same length as the pastry’s longest side.
4. Gently lift the sausagemeat roll onto the pastry and gently fold the pastry over tightly and seal the edges together with a little water.
5. Take a knife and slice close to the join, but not too close or the roll will fall open! Gently roll the sausage roll over so the join is at the top and again fold and smooth the edge down with a little water. Roll around again so the the join is at the bottom and push down.
6. Take a paring knife and slice 4cm wide slices down the roll, ensuring the knife is clean between slices.
7. Lay them out on two well greased baking trays and tidy up the sausage rolls by making them more rounded and tucking all the sausagemeat and pastry back onto the ends. Then take a pair of scissors and snip two triangles in the tops of each of the sausage rolls.
8. Mix the egg yolk and the milk together and wash over the tops of the sausage rolls with a pastry brush.
9. Drip about 1/2 tsp water onto the baking trays and run around the edges of the tin.
10. Put them in the oven at 220C then turn down to 200C after puff pastry starts to puff (about 3 minutes), and cook for a further 8 minutes until golden brown.
11. Remove from the baking tray, using a table knife to gently lift any that have stuck, and cool on a wire rack.
12. Beware of stray fingers as they taste delicious warm!

Spending time on mince pies is always worth the effort! Impress your friends by using the snowflake shaped cutter for the cutout. I based this on Nigella’s recipe but added a few ingredients of my own. The addition of spices to the pastry adds some extra flavour.

55mins – Prep time: 40mins – Cooking time: 15mins

{Makes: 12}

Ingredients

• 8oz plain flour
• 2oz lard, diced into small squares
• 2oz cold butter, diced into small squares
• 130ml orange juice
• 1oz icing sugar
• 1/2 grated nutmeg
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp ground almond
• 2tbsp demerera sugar for sprinkling
• 1 jar mincemeat (admittedly I cheated and used shop-bought one, Duerr’s Luxury Mincemeat)
• Splash of amaretto

Instructions

Oven temp: 180°C/320°F

1. Grease and flour a 12 hole bun tin.
2. Sift the flour and icing sugar into a bowl and mix in the nutmeg, cinnamon and almond. Then bit by bit, add the lard and butter, shaking the to cover them in flour. Add Place in fridge for 20 mins.
3. Blitz the mixture in a blender until it goes into breadcrumb form, then add the juice until it just starts to form dough.
4. Knead the mixture of a floured surface, then wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 10 minutes.
5. Once removed, quarter, then roll out 2 quarters into thin layers with a rolling pin on a floured surface. Cut out circles with a cutter, just larger than the bun tin’s holes.
6. Gently push down the pastry circles into the bun tin with the end of your thumb.
7. Add the splash of amaretto to your jar of mincemeat and shake to mix. Then taking a tablespoonful at a time, put the mincemeat into the pies cases.
8. Roll out the other two quarters into thin layers on a floured surface and use the large snowflake cutter from this PME 3 Pce Snowflake Cutter Set to create snowflakes for the top.

   Tip: Be very gentle with the snowflakes , they’re fragile! We found that pushing out the design right on top of the mince pies worked really well as we didn’t need to move them too much, otherwise they can break.

9. You can brush the tops with a little milk and dust with the demerera sugar for a caramel crunch top.
10. Place in the oven for about 12 minutes.
11. Ensure the mince pies cool down thoroughly as the pastry is quite short and prone to breaking if not left to hard a little before moving.