Fruit tarts are the ultimate homemade bake to impress guests or serve as a teatime treat for yourself.

Classic British recipes call upon sweet jams to fill a shortcrust pastry base, but this Portuguese-inspired formula by Mary Berry is more unique, using sticky apricots instead.

As debuted on Mary’s BBC Two show ‘Mary Makes It Easy’, the recipe resembles what the chef called “a firm favourite around the world”, better known as “pastel de nata”.

Described by Mary as a “worldwide treasure”, the tarts are surprisingly easy to make with the help of some premade pastry.

Puff pastry is essential for an authentic result and is easy to find in most supermarkets like Sainsbury’s for just 99p.

Apricot tarts recipe

Ingredients

For the tarts

Butter, for greasing

Plain flour, for dusting

320g ready-rolled puff pastry

Half a 400g tin apricot, drained and sliced

15g/½oz demerara sugar

3 tbsp apricot jam, melted, to glaze

For the custard

250ml/9fl oz milk

100ml/3½fl oz double cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large free-range egg, plus 2 egg yolks

115g/4oz caster sugar

4 tsp cornflour

Method 

First, find a 12-hole deep muffin tin, greased with butter, and 10cm/4in a round cutter.

Make a start on the custard by adding the milk, cream and vanilla to a saucepan. Place over medium heat until hot.

Meanwhile, break the whole egg into a heatproof bowl, add the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour and hand whisk until everything is well combined. Add the hot milk and cream mixture to the bowl and whisk again until smooth.

Pour the custard back into the saucepan, place it over medium heat and whisk to a thick custard consistency. Mary warned: “Be careful not to overheat.”

Spoon the finished custard into a bowl and cover with a piece of cling film lightly touching the surface of the custard. Set aside and allow to cool completely at room temperature.

Dust the worktop with a little flour, then unroll the pastry and cut it in half lengthways to make two long strips.

Sit the strips on top of one another, press down slightly, and then cut the pastry in half widthways. Next, take one piece and roll it out thinly to create a large piece big enough to cut five 10cm/4in discs.

The 10cm/4in round cutter and cut out five discs. Repeat this process with the other piece of pastry, producing 10 discs in total.

Gently place the rounds in the muffin tin, pressing down firmly and up the sides of the tin, then prick the bases with a fork.