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What to do with surplus eggs

Apart from freeze them . [shudders]

Make tarts! I call them tarts anyway though you may well know them as quiches or flans.

For the pastry cases:

300g plain flour
150g butter
Ice cold water

Rub butter into flour (or use food processor) until mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add water a tiny bit at a time, cutting and stirring with a metal knife all the while until a clean dough i.e is one solid lump in your bowl).

Line tart case/flan case with pastry and bake blind for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and fill immediately.

For the fillings:
Here you can go mad and just use whatever you have in the fridge. e.g today I made

Mozzarella, Andouille and sunblush tomato
Mushroom, black olive, manchego and sunblush tomato
Blueberry
Blackcurrant

Just make sure you stuff the case full of filling. Not so it over flows but to at least 2/3 the depth of the case.

The egg mix is simple and the same for both sweet and savoury - though adding salt and pepper for savoury and about 3 tablespoons of organic golden granulated sugar for the sweet.

4 eggs
7 fl oz of double cream
3 fl oz of milk
salt and pepper OR
3 tbsp sugar

Beat together and pour over fillings of choice. If you are using cheese in your filling, sprinkle/lay it on the base before anything else as I find this helps the bottom remain crispy. Bake at around 160 deg C (fan oven) for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown on top and centre of tart bounces back when lightly pressed.

They'll keep for a couple of days in the fridge but you can freeze them too - just slip the cooled ones into a ziplock freezer bag, press all the air out and thats it. They'll still be fine a month later. Don't defrost them when you need them, just put in a low oven straight from freezer until heated through.

This article is reproduced with kind permission of Lemonysnicket.
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