All the flavours of Christmas – almonds, cranberries, orange and pear – in a little pie.

Ingredients (serves 8):

For the pastry: 350g plain flour; 85g ground almonds; 140g caster sugar; 225g butter, cubed; 1 egg, beaten for brushing over the pastry.

For the filling: 400g cranberries, fresh or frozen; 50g caster sugar; 25g cornflour; 325g orange curd; 450g ripe pears, peeled, cored and chopped.

Method:

1. Put the flour, almonds and sugar into a food processor, add the cubed butter and mix until it looks like breadcrumbs.

2. Add up to five tablespoons of cold water until the mixture forms a dough. Wrap and chill for half an hour.

3. Tip the cranberries into a pan and add the sugar and cornflour, stirring well. Fold in the orange curd then cook for a few minutes to thicken. Add the chopped pears and cook for a few more minutes. If you’ve used frozen cranberries, you may need to add a little more cornflour.

4. Leave the mixture to cool and heat the oven to 190°C (fan 170°C/gas mark 5).

5. Roll out the pastry and use to line eight 10cm individual tart tins. Fill with the cooled mixture.

6. Roll out the rest of the pastry and make four lids. Use whatever shaped cutters you like to stamp out the shapes from the middle.

7. Cover four of your pies with lids and pop the cut out shapes onto a baking tray. Brush the pies and shapes with your beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar.

8. Bake the shapes for 10 minutes and the pies for 18-20 minutes until nicely golden.

9. Sprinkle more sugar over the pastry, then pop the shapes onto your open pies and serve with custard, cream or ice cream.