Recipe: St Clements tart

A Christmas Day discovery leads me to invent a tart in honour of the Oranges and Lemons nursery rhyme.

On Christmas morning after a delicious brunch of Scandinavian pancake and opening the presents under the tree, we went for a walk. In serendipitous fashion, we discovered the Bells of Stepney from the children’s nursery rhyme at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney Green. I have written more about the church over on Roaming Tales.

I was most impressed with this find so I decided to create a dessert in honour of the occasion – it has oranges and lemons in it and I’ve called it St Clements tart. I had some homemade pastry leftover from making mince pies (Nigella Lawson’s star-topped mince pies from How to be a Domestic Goddess if you want to know) and I improvised the filling, using principles from making pumpkin pie recently.

I really enjoyed the tart – the pastry was light and fluffy and the filling tangy but full-bodied and satisfying. We had it for dessert, after our roast vegetables and nut loaf (it was a vegetarian Christmas for us) and brussel sprouts with pomegranate (inspired by an Ottolenghi recipe).

I apologise that the ingredients given here are not exact but think of it as licence to improvise – I’m pretty sure it would work if you mixed up the quantities, omitted ingredients (such as the apple) or used double cream instead of yogurt.

Ingredients

Most of a packet of ground almond (about 3/4 cup)

2 eggs (I happened to use one duck egg and one chicken egg but this is not necessary)

2-4 tbs raw sugar (to taste)

3 tbs grated apple

zest and juice of one orange

zest and juice of one lemon

2 tbs set Greek yogurt

Pinches of cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, ground ginger and cloves.

Milk (optional)

Method

Preheat your oven to 220C or gas mark 7.

Beat the eggs with a fork and mix with the ground almonds, reserving some ground almonds for later. Mix with apple, yogurt, zest and spices. Add sugar, tasting as you do to ensure the right flavour. Pour in the citrus juice slowly – you don’t have to use it all. Add a dash of milk if it’s still too thick – you’re aiming for the consistency of pancake or cake batter. Add more ground almond if it’s too runny.

Roll out your pastry and form it into a tart tin. Pour in the mix and spread it out evenly. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the filling has turned golden and the pastry is cooked.

Oranges and lemons
Say the bells of St Clements
You owe me five farthings
Say the bells of St Martins
When will you pay me?
Say the bells of Old Bailey
When I grow rich
Say the bells of Shoreditch
When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney
I’m sure I don’t know
Says the great bell at Bow
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head
Chop chop chop chop the last man’s head!