Honey and Almond Tarts

 My latest Jo Wheatley challenge was the Honey and Almond Tarts from page 92. I wasn't overly keen on this idea as I don't like pastry but as it was pulled out of the hat, I gave it a shot. 

It was probably the most complicated of the recipes I've done to date but having said that it was very easy to create. 

The first step was to make some sweet pastry and leave this to chill. Once that was chilled I used a cutter to cut out circles and then placed these in a pre-sprayed muffin tin and left to chill for 15 more minutes. 

Pastry is chilling

Whilst that was on the go I heated up the butter, sugar and honey to boiling and then added some double cream and almonds. This mixture seemed to be mainly almonds with honey and not much else. I was expecting a spongy mixture. 

This was added to the pastries and then they were cooked for 20mins. 

Add the honey and almonds

Once cooled I made some lemon icing (icing sugar and lemon) and added this over the top. 

The finished product, not too neat and tidy this time!

The verdict: Jo's description states "I think it's really great when you create different textures and tastes in a bake, and these little tarts do just that, with soft, short, crumbly pastry, then sticky honey and crunchy almonds, all topped off with tangy lemon icing. What's more, it's really simple". 

I agree that there were several different textures in these tarts and that the lemon icing certainly helped the tarts, however, I didn't really enjoy it. For me it was way too sweet and moist, I found it slightly sickingly sweet and since I don't like pastry anyway this didn't help. To be honest, the pastry section was actually my favourite bit of this so that's not great. My score is only a 6/10 this time. 

My husband however, for once, gives a higher score than me being 8/10, He thought the lemon complimented the nuts and pastry really well and it tasted really nice.

Contrasting views today then but bring the Honey and Almond Tarts to a total score of 14/20.