Ingredients
Serves 10 (6 if making individual tarts)
220g unsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed
250g Matthews Cotswold Flour Maizebite Golden Flour Mix
100g icing sugar
75g custard powder
Generous pinch of sea salt
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 free-range egg yolk
White chocolate ganache
150g white chocolate, finely chopped
50ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla paste
2 tbsp poppy seeds (to decorate)
sunflower pastry cutter (or round cutters)
Method
Place butter in the bowl of a standard mixer with the paddle inserted. Beat until the butter is creamy (1 to 2 minutes).
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, mix, then pour into the mixer bowl containing the whipped butter. Mix gently until the mixture forms a breadcrumb texture. Add the vanilla paste and egg yolk and mix gently until the dough comes together.
Turn the dough out onto a clean surface, form into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 170ºC/150ºC fan.
Remove dough from the fridge and take off plastic wrap. Place on lightly floured clean surface. Roll out (one way, then rotate 90 degrees and roll again) to a thickness of 5mm. Sprinkle with a little flour and cut out flowers. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheets. Use smaller cutters for leftover dough.
Bake for 12 minutes until lightly golden, rotating the trays halfway through.
Remove from oven and leave to cool on a rack.
Chop chocolate up into small pieces. Pour cream into a small saucepan and add the vanilla paste. Gently warm, until bubbles form at the edges of the saucepan, then pour over the chocolate. Leave to melt for 1 minute then stir until smooth. Pour into a piping bag and leave to cool.
Pipe the ganache around the edge of half the cookies and place ½ teaspoon of lemon curd in the centre. Top with the remaining cookies.
Pipe a circle of ganache in the centre of the sunflower and sprinkle over poppy seeds.