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Serves: 4
Prep time: 15 minutes

Almond frangipane is the stuff that you get in the middle of an almond croissant – one of life’s rather spectacular inventions. It goes well with a few fruits but I recon peaches look fantastic and taste pretty damn good too and so work really well in these swanky little tarts. Serve them piping hot out of the oven with a hefty dollop of ice cream.

120g ground almonds
100g unsalted butter
1 free-range egg
1 tablespoon amaretto liqueur (optional)
50g icing sugar
300g (roughly half a batch) ruff puff pastry
3 ripe, but firm peaches
Vanilla ice cream, to serve

Beat the almonds, butter, egg, amaretto and half the sugar in a small bowl until mixed.

Roll the pastry out to the thickness of a 50p piece and, using a saucer about 13cm in diameter, cut out 4 circles. Lift the circles onto a baking tray and spread each thinly with 2 tablespoons of almond mixture, making sure that you leave a border. Arrange the peach slices on top in a rosette and chill for at least 10 minutes before baking.

Heat the oven to 220^oC/gas 7. Bake for 25 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and the peach is sticky and caramelised.