Recipe for Traditional Yorkshire Wilfra Tarts

Wilfra tarts are traditional apple and cheese tarts made in Ripon, Yorkshire in honour of St Wilfrid. St Wilfrid built the cathedral in Ripon in the 7th Century. Every year, during the first week in August, the local townspeople make Wilfra tarts and leave them on windowsills for passers-by to enjoy. A quaint tradition but I ignored that bit and ate them all myself. Here is how I made them.

Ingredients

• Shortcrust pastry
• Apples
• Wensleydale cheese

Preparation

• Prepare some shortcrust pastry (I used suet pastry leftover from last week's recipe) and roll it very thin
• Line the bottoms of a muffin tray with pastry and lightly bake the empty pastry shells until the pastry just hardens
• Peel, core and cook 2 or 3 apples with a little sugar until tender
• Fill the pastry shells with the cooked apple then top with a thin slice of Wensleydale cheese
• Using some more of the pastry, place lids on the tarts then spread a little milk on top of each one and carefully seal the lids to the rest of the tarts
• Bake for about 20 minutes at 375F until the tarts just begin to turn golden
• Allow to cool thoroughly then eat

John's Notes
I cheated. I didn't have any Wensleydale cheese. It isn't always easy to get in Canada, so I substituted Canadian cheddar. I am sure that readers from Yorkshire will be horrified, but by gum, my tarts turned out very nicely thank you very much.

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