This recipe from the 1800s was found in a thin notebook of hand-written recipes. The author calls them ‘Lemon cheesecakes’. They are a cross between a custard tart and a lemon curd tart.

Makes 120 small deep tarts – muffin tin size

Large lemons - 12

Caster sugar - 1.1kg

Whole eggs plus - 40

Egg yolks - 20

Butter (melted) - 1.1kg

Puff pasty - 2.2kg

Method

Roll out the pastry and line the tins. The pastry needs to be thin

Put the zest and juice of the lemon into a bain-marie

Stir in the sugar, eggs and melted butter

Put the mixture over boiling water and stir it frequently until it thickens. This should take about 10-15 minutes

Remove the bowl from the heat and allow it to cool to room temperature

Spoon the cooled mixture into the pastry cases and bake for 20-25 minutes at 220ºC

Let them cool and finish by dusting with icing sugar