Instructions: Put the the butter sugar and egg yolks in a processor and process to make a paste then add the flour; process again and bring together with your hands to make a dough.

Dont overwork it or is will shrink in the oven. Cover with clingfihn and chill for about 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6. Roll out the pastry to about 5mm and line a 20cm tart ring or rectangular (tranche) tin.

Line with greaseproof paper fill with baking beans or rice and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove the beans and paper and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes or until golden and just cooked.

Leave to cool.

Theres nothing worse than having to wade your way through a hard crust of shelllike pastry. You may as well have baked the fruit without it. So if youre looking for the perfect and easy to make pastry for fruit tarts this is it: classic French pate sucree makes a meltingly rich paste with a buttery crumb. Bake it on its own then fill with thick vanillabean custard and top with lightly poached greengages. Alternatively beat a tub of mascarpone with 1 egg and 1 tbsp of caster sugar use to fill the tart case then mound with punnets of blueberries or oozingly ripe slices of fresh fig sprinkled with rosewater.

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