On tonight’s Bake Off the technical challenge was a biscuit called an Arlette which involves making a sort of puff pastry from scratch. Whilst on holiday in Devon two weeks ago I saw a Rose Prince dessert in a newspaper magazine which I thought sounded easy to make and tasty. I thereby unwittingly made these very same biscuits. (Well, sort of, anyway). I had no idea they were called Arlettes; I thought they were more of a Palmier (shows how much I know). Of course I didn’t make my own puff pastry and I suspect Paul and Mary would have issues with my thickness (and not having any cinnamon in them) but nevertheless they were delicious and went beautifully with the gorgeous lemon mousse, so, with a small amount of alteration, here they are. (Serves 4 – 6 depending on the size of your ramekins).

Ingredients for the lemon Arlettes:

• 1 block or sheet of all butter puff pastry (blocks are usually 375g and sheets 320g)
• The zest of 3 lemons, grated (Prince says 2 but I think they needed a bit more lemonyness)
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 egg, beaten

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200C

1. Unroll your sheet of pastry, or roll out the pastry to ¼ cm thickness if you have a block. (Prince says ½ cm but I’m thinking about Paul and Mary here).
2. Scatter 2/3 of the lemon zest and a generous tablespoon of sugar onto both sides of your pastry  – you can do this by putting half (of your two thirds) of the sugar and zest onto a piece of baking parchment, placing your pastry on that and then scattering the remaining half of your two thirds of lemon and zest on top of the pastry. (Sounds complicated; really isn’t).
3. Roll up the pastry (from the short end) into a log shape, wrap it tightly in baking paper and chill in the fridge for at least 30 mins (or 10 mins in the freezer).
4. Unwrap and cut the pastry roll into thin slices.
5. Gently roll the slices even thinner using a rolling pin.
6. Place the slices on a baking sheet covered with baking paper covered in half of the res of your zest and sugar.
7. Brush them with beaten egg and then dust their tops with the remaining lemon zest and sugar.
8. Bake until golden – about 10-15 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking sheet for a minute or two then cool completely on a rack.

Ingredients for the lemon curd mousse

• 1 jar of the best lemon curd you can afford (about 320g. You could make your own, but then the recipe wouldn’t be ‘easy’)
• 300g double cream, whipped
• The zest of 1 lemon, pared (if you can. I find this very tricky. But it does look nicer if the peel is pared not grated. Though grated will of course be fine).

Method:

Fold the lemon curd into the whipped cream until the two are amalgamated, then spoon or pour it into pretty ramekins. Scatter the pared zest on the top and chill until needed. Serve with the beautiful Arlettes. Simple as. Yums! (ps your Arlettes should look thinner than mine!)