This is one that I made up this morning at the café. I had some pastry left from making quiche yesterday  (thanks to the wonderful Marie-Helene to whom I delegate quiche making – her pastry is wonderful!). I also had some pears to use. Seeing as I was busy baking sponge I made some extra mixture and topped it with that.

Ingredients

• Shortcrust pastry
• A pear
• 2 oz self raising flour
• 2 oz sugar
• 2 oz margarine
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Method

Roll out the pastry to about 1/4 cm thick. Cut out circles with a large biscuit cutter or a pint glass. Gently push the rounds of pastry into a muffin tin.

Cut the pear into quarters and take the core out. Slice the pear thinly and then place a few pieces in the bottom of each pie base.

Next, make the sponge mixture. I tend to use Delia’s all-in-one sponge recipe as a base for most of my cakes – it is easy and reliable; ‘just’ whizz it all together until nice and smooth. This morning I made a three egg mixture,  took out what I needed to top the pear tarts, and then stirred some lemon zest into the remaining mixture for my lemon drizzle cake.

The tarts were baked in the oven at about 180oC for 10 – 15 minutes. They are ready when the sponge has risen nicely and is slightly browned on the top.