St. Clement's Tartlets  Add/Read Comments

St. Clement - the patron saint of blacksmiths, killed in the 4th century by being thrown into the sea, tied to an anchor. November 23rd is the feast day of St. Clement. If you happen to be a blacksmith you should be parading around the countryside carrying an effigy of 'Old Clem' and collecting alms ('clementing') for the feast. Now subsumed into Guy Fawkes and Halloween celebrations apple-bobbing hailed from the St. Clements Day activities. Clementing Cakes were traditionally sold at the Berkshire Clementide Sheep Fair.

St. Clement's Tartlets

• 225g shortcrust pastry


• 1 orange


• 1 lemon


• 75g soften butter


• 2 eggs (I actually used up two goose eggs) separated

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Line cake tins with the rolled out pastry. Cream together the butter and sugar and gradually add the egg yolks until fully mixed. Add 2 tablespoons orange juice and the rinds from the orange and lemon. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture. Pour into the pastry cases and bake for 25 minutes at 180C for a fan oven.

The filling puffs up magnificently during cooking but, naturally, collapses on cooling. I prefer these warm with a little vanilla ice-cream but they are good cold too.