Recipe: Lemon & Almond Tart

For Two Individual Tarts.
Ingredients: 2 sheets Phyllo pastry, approx 12"x6" each; melted Butter, approx half an ounce; 1 Egg; 1.5 oz Sugar; grated rind and juice of 1 Lemon; 2 oz ground Almonds; a drop of Almond Essence.

Method:

1. Grease two individual false-bottomed tart tins. Brush the Phyllo sheets with the melted butter, cut each sheet in two, and use each pair of pieces to make a double thickness pastry shell in each tin.

2. Whisk the Egg and Sugar together for several minutes until pale yellow in colour and it falls away from the whisk in a ribbon; beat into this mixture the ground Almonds and Almond essence, and fold in the juice and rind of the Lemon.

3. Bake the shells for about 5 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 200 degrees C. Remove them when they are look crisp and quite brown. Reduce the oven temperature to 180 degrees C. Fill the pastry shells with the almond-lemon mixture, and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes - take them out when they have puffed generously and start to colour on the surface.

Dust with icing sugar once they have cooled, and serve.

Depending on the size of the tart tins you use, you may find you have some mixture left over after you've filled the pastry shells. Put any left-over mixture into a greased ramekin and bake it alongside the tarts - useful to put in the fridge for one of those odd moments when it's time for a little something!