Christmas Tarts

These are basically jam tarts but with a Christmas twist - spiced orange is a classic festive fragrance, and these are quick to make if you have unexpected visitors in the run up to Christmas Day. Maybe you could even leave a couple out for Santa... ;)

Ingredients:
One batch of sweet shortcrust pastry
12 tbsp orange marmalade
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ginger
2 tbsp port
Nutmeg to dust

Pre-heat your oven to 180c.

Roll the pastry out to the thickness of a £1 coin, and use a round cookie cutter or the rim of a glass to cut our your cases. Use a cutter that's a little bigger than the circumference of the holes in your cupcake tray so they come up the sides. Re-roll any left over pastry until it's all used up.

Lightly dust a cupcake tray with flour and line the holes with your pastry cases.

In a mixing bowl, combine the marmalade, mixed spice, ginger and port and mix well. Place a spoonful of the mixture into the pastry cases - make sure you don't overfill them, you don't want hot marmalade oozing everywhere when you take them out of the oven!

Bake for 15 minutes until the marmalade is bubbling and the pastry is lightly browned.
Leave to cool in the tin slightly before removing and placing on a wire rack. Once cool, dust with a little nutmeg.