Bakewell Tart
- on 08.05.10
- Afters, Food & Recipes
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Bakewell Tart is a classic British teatime treat. I love the delicious retro nature of this dessert. If you have bad memories of plastic versions of this dessert I would ask you to forget the ‘fake’ bought Bakewell Tarts, and give this home made version a go.
Ingredients for pastry base:
- 180g of plain flour
- 30g ground almonds
- 60g icing sugar
- 100g of margarine or butter
- 1 small egg
- pinch of salt (optional)
Ingredients for almond top:
- 6-8 tbps of best quality raspberry jam
- 3 eggs
- 100g ground almonds
- 100g caster sugar
- 100g soft margarine or butter
Method:
- Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6 or about 200 oC for 20 minutes.
- In a bowl make the pastry by cutting the fat into small pieces and then use the rubbing in method to combine it with the flour.
- Add the almonds, sugar, and pinch of salt if using (I have no idea what the salt does but Mother of Marge says it ‘helps’ the pastry!)
- Mix in the whole egg and then place the bowl in the fridge to chill.
- Have a cup of coffee and a sit down for 20 minutes
- Now carefully roll out the pastry. Remember unlike bread dough you don’t want to handle the pastry too much. Mother of Marge says this makes the pastry tough – which we don’t want, do we? Be sure to flour the surface and your rolling pin…. or go to no.7
- *ahem* if (like me) you find rolling out this pastry too difficult because being sweet it keeps sticking to the rolling pin then do what I do – cheat!
Take your shallow baking dish and after greasing and lightly sprinkling with flour (to prevent sticking), bung the pastry ball in and press it into place. It works and makes things so much easier. - Place the rolled out or pressed pastry dish into the fridge again for further chilling out.
- Now for the almond top – melt the fat in a microwave safe dish for 20 seconds and leave it to rest.
- Beat the eggs and sugar well using a whisk, and then bit by bit add the melted fat. Now you want to whisk it like the clappers! I suggest you use an electric whisk (on a low setting) unless you want to work your biceps!
- Take the pastry dish out of the fridge and spread over the jam. I have said to use 6-8 tbps and here you can use your own judgement. I like lots of jam so I would use 8 tbsp.
- Now pour on the almond top and bung in the middle of the oven for 40 minutes of so. You can check to see how the Bakewell Tart is doing after 25 minutes and if need be lightly cover with tin foil to prevent burning.
- You can serve Bakewell Tart warm or cold, and especially with a nice cup of tea … well you did have coffee earlier
Delicious slice of Bakewell Tart about to be scoffed!
