Recipe by Liz Henderson.  All else by Karen Swan

Another handy basic recipe to have up your sleeve from our resident French gourmet, Liz!

Endlessly adaptable and always delicious it seems I will be consuming far more raspberry and peach tarts than is nutritionally necessary over the next few days!

Ingredients:

One batch per family

100 g butter

100 g almond meal

100 g sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp rum or sherry

Method:

Mix the butter, sugar, and the almond meal, until it becomes soft and creamy.

Add the rum and the beaten egg and continue to mix until it all becomes soft and white.

Add the flour at the end.

Can be used as a dessert base in many ways:

As a base for fruit tartlets: Pre cook some short crust pastry in small tart shells, add the frangipane, and top up with lovely fruit such as fresh berries, apricots, apples (thinly sliced)… Bake in oven until it reaches a beautiful golden colour.

Or cakes: Galette des rois or pithivier: Use some puff pastry as the base of a large tart shell. Spread the frangipane. Top up with another sheet of puff pastry. Use an egg yolk to colour the top, with a knife draw some lines in both directions and bake at 200°C for about 30 minutes.