Sweet Pastry

I normally make pastry by hand, but Nigella's method is simpler (i know, i couldn't believe it!) and turns out better. She uses the blender and it just seems to work, and this is without doing the fiddly bits of putting things back in the freezer.

- Sieve 120g flour and 30g icing sugar into a bowl and add 80g cold cubed (1cm) butter.

- Put this in the deep freeze for 10 mins.

- In a small bowl, mix 1 egg yolk, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, a tablespoon of iced water and a pinch of salt.

- Beat together and then put back in the fridge.

- Remove the flour/butter bowl and add to a blender.

- Blend for a few mins, until the mixture resembles oatmeal.

- Add the egg yolk mixture to the blender and blend until the mixture nearly comes together - add slightly more iced water if necessary.

- Just before it totally amalgamates, remove it and combine into a round ball.

- Cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge until its ready to be used.

Just perfect for the custard tart coming up...