After a meal I like something sweet. Usually there is a cake sitting in a tin or a packet of biscuits in the cupboard to fill the gap when I haven’t made a pudding. It is rather a dire day when the cupboard is bereft of anything to satisfy my sweet addiction. Today, to my despair, that dire day had reared its ugly head. I checked all the usual places and some of the more unusual (I sometimes like to hide things from myself) for something to satisfy my sweet fix. Nothing. Every last crumb, square of chocolate and biscuit had been eaten.
As I stood in front of my pantry shelves looking for inspiration I realised I did have quite a collection of jams made the previous summer. So I started to wrack my brains for something jam based. The idea of maids of honor came to mind, then dashed because of the puff pastry element – I didn’t have the inclination or more importantly the time to make any. Then I thought of a recipe from Clarissa Dickson Wright where she had used shortcrust pastry instead. A little bit of digging amongst the cookery books and the recipe was found.
These little maids of honour date back to Tudor times and get their name from Henry VIII – like the recipe there are many versions of their true history. One such story is that Henry VIII saw Anne Boleyn, then a maid of honour to Catherine of Aragon (Henry’s first and present wife), eating these with a group of other maids of honour. Not only did Anne Boleyn catch his eye so did the desire for these little tarts. Unfortunately for Anne Boleyn, Henry’s desire for the tarts lasted a little longer, but neither having a happy ending!
This recipe with its shortcrust pastry makes for a very buttery melt in the mouth treat. The jam and almond filling give a slightly chewy almondy taste.
Maids of Honour
makes 12
Pastry
Ingredients
225g plain flour
135g butter
2 tsp icing sugar
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tsp cold water
Filling
Ingredients
50g unsalted butter
75g caster sugar
1 heaped teaspoon self raising flour
2 egg yolks beaten
100g ground almonds
shredded rind of 1 lemon
1 tbs cream (I used milk)
6 tsp damson jam (or one of your choice even lemon curd)
Icing sugar for dusting
Method
Put all the pastry ingredients in a food processor and pulse until a dough is formed. Wrap in cling film and set aside for 30 mins.
Turn oven onto Gas Mark 6/200C/400F.
Roll out pastry and cut 12 circles with a pastry cutter. Place a circle of pastry into the tin and gently press them down to fill the space.
For the filling, cream the butter and sugar together thoroughly. Stir into this the flour and beaten egg yolks. Stir and then add the almonds, lemon rind and finally the cream.
Add a teaspoon of jam into each little tart and then a spoonful of filling. Divide any leftover filling between the tarts. With the back of a teaspoon gently smooth over the filling so that no jam is showing.
Put into the oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave in the tart tin to cool.
If you try and remove them when they are still hot the pastry, which is very fragile, will start to crumble and break. As they cool the pastry firms up.
Dust with icing sugar and serve.
Store in an airtight tin.
I kept to Clarissa’s recipe but found there was quite a bit of excess pastry left.
THIS is what you make in a hurry and in a pinch to satisfy your sweet tooth? You are amazing! Beautiful recipe and post 🙂
Azita, I am sure we all make more of an effort when we want something! As to beautiful look at your recipes.
Oh my! These look so delicious!
Thank you Serena – they didn’t last long.
Not surprised…
Pretty plates AND cakes!
Thank you.
I love your blog, Maria. The history is so fascinating and ill-fated. These sound delicious. I’m tempted to make them right now, but I don’t have any self raising flour. I find myself in your predicament right now. I may just end up making spicy chocolate cookies. Much less dainty, but it serves the purpose.
Henry VIII was a well documented foodie – I wonder which caught his eye first – Anne or the cakes? I think that when the pantry is low is when recipes are created.
Love the story and the tarts Maria. They are so sophisticated. Are you going to make jam tarts with the leftover pastry, I hope? (I’ve given up desserts for Lent but am enjoying looking…)
I have to confess that I had all good intentions of using the left over pastry, no other ingredients were seen any where near the left over pastry!
These remind me of our latter-day Bakewell tarts. Not that I’ve made them. I find the shop-bought horribly sweet (even though I love almonds), so I never buy them. These look delicious. And so buttery. Shortbread being one of my favourites. Maybe this is what I could make to finish off my black grape and pear jam from last summer. An absolute celebration!
Johnny I thought the same – they are very much like Bakewell tarts, a lot of recipes use lemon curd instead of the jam which changes the whole thing. They are definitely buttery. Black grape and pear jam sounds rather grown up.
With your sentence “This recipe with its shortcrust pastry makes for a very buttery melt in the mouth treat. The jam and almond filling give a slightly chewy almondy taste.’, you sold me these tarts. They sure do have interesting name and background. Your photo looks perfect and I love how these ‘maids of horour’ looks too. I’m going to make this and let you know about it! Yum! 😛
They didn’t last long, It is a recipe I would make again. It is not my recipe hence the note at the bottom of left over pastry. They are quite easy to make and worth a go. Would love to know what you think?
I was smiling reading your post. You remind me of my mom so much. She has such a huge sweet tooth and she always wants to finish her meals with something sweet and she would go to the North Pole for a piece of cake. 🙂
Wonderful story behind those delicious tarts!
I know its a weakness, I cannot help myself. Poor Anne if only she had not had a sweet tooth!
I don’t think that would have saved her. She was too ambitious and sometimes it is a curse. She belongs to that category of women that are predestined to tragedy.
What a nice post, Maria. You give us a wonderful recipe and a good read. Poor Anne Boleyn. She and her successors were doomed once the fickle Henry laid eyes upon them. I, too, have jars of jam that I’m wondering what I’m to do with it. I can only eat so much toast! Your maids are a fantastic solution. They reminded me of Mom’s crostata recipe. I need to find it for it’s a wonderful treat and a great way to clear out this jam. Thanks for the inspiration. 🙂
Thank you John. Henry VIII was not the nicest but what a daughter he and Anne produced!
I’m amazed and love how you just put these together using your jam from last summer. A wonderful recipe. Thank you for sharing one of your wonderful cookbook recipes with us.
Thank you.
These are lovely li’l tarts. I love their name.
After a meal, I have to have something sweet, too.
Dessert is really just the best part of any meal!
The name is rather sweet. Glad to know its not just me that likes something sweet after a meal!
I just made these ( May 19th/ for their association with Ann Boleyn as a whimsy ). They are really very nice indeed! Not too sweet, but just lovely in taste and texture. A lovely treat for the tea table. Thank you for the interesting post and the nice recipe. Inspiring photo of the tarts! 🙂
Mia, thank you so much for commenting and I am so glad they turned out well. Even bigger thank you for the comment re the photo – how I struggle over these photos!