Bakewell Tart
A traditional almond, butter, egg and sugar cake over a jam layer in a pastry flan case.
INGREDIENTS
Filling (Red quantities for shallower ready-made case)
- 2 heaped tbsp jam (recipe demands raspberry - I prefer black cherry or ginger)
- 150g (100g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Margarine for lactose free
- 150g (100g) caster sugar
- 150g (100g) ground almonds
- 3 (2) eggs
- zest of one lemon or lime
- 1 tbsp flaked almonds (optional)
- Glacé icing/frosting (optional - use 125g Icing sugar and the juice of the lemon or lime)
- 17 Half glacé cherries, or small pieces of crystallised ginger (optional)
Pastry (Or use a 20 cm ready-made flan case)
- 125g plain flour
- 75g unsalted butter, cold and diced
- 25g caster sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 egg white
METHOD
Pastry
To make the pastry, tip the flour, butter and sugar into a food processor with a pinch of salt. Whizz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and 1 tsp of cold water and pulse until the dough comes together. Flatten into a disc, cover with clingfilm and chill for no more than 1 hour.
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to about 3mm thickness. Line a 20cm fluted tart tin with a depth of 31/2 cm. Prick the base with a fork and chill for 20 minutes. Heat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4.
Line the pastry case with baking parchment and fill with baking beans. Cook for about 20 minutes until the pastry is a pale golden colour. Take out the beans, brush the inside of the pastry case with a little egg white and cook for a further 2 minutes. Cool slightly.
[Or, of course, buy a ready-made pastry case - which may be gluten and/or lactose free if necessary. English ones are only 2.5 cm deep.]
Bakewell Filling
Spread the jam in an even layer over the base of the pastry case. In a blender cream together the butter, caster sugar, eggs, ground almonds and lemon zest. Carefully spoon the mixture over the jam and spread level. Bake for 20 minutes at the same 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4. Scatter with the flaked almonds, if used (probably not if you're going to ice it), and continue to cook for a further 15-20 minutes until golden and set.
Cool to room temperature, dust with icing sugar (or cover with glacé or other icing [frosting in the US] and glacé cherry halves if you used cherry jam, or small pieces of crystallised ginger if you used ginger jam) and serve as wedges if eaten by hand, or in a bowl with pouring cream or custard if eaten with a spoon and/or fork.
The filling, with or without glacé frosting is gluten and lactose (but not, of course, nut or calorie) free.
Note that this page refers to the confectionery bakewell tart, not
Joan Bakewell ("the thinking man's crumpet" - Frank Muir).
This is a recipe page on the James Bryant (G4CLF) Web-site.
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