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    Home » Recipes » Dessert

    Daring Bakers Bakewell Tart

    Published by Melissa on June 27, 2009 | Updated July 9, 2018 | 44 Comments

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    Daring Bakers Bakewell TartThe June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England.

    “Bakewell tarts…er…puddings combine a number of dessert elements but still let you show off your area’s seasonal fruits.

    Like many regional dishes there’s no “one way” to make a Bakewell Tart…er…Pudding, but most of today’s versions fall within one of two types. The first is the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almondy pastry cream and baked in puff pastry. The second is the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds jam and an almondy sponge cake-like filling.

    The version we’re daring you to make is a combination of the two: a sweet almond-flavoured shortcrust pastry, frangipane and jam.”

    I had never tasted nor heard of a Bakewell Tart nor Bakewell Pudding before this challenge, but I’m happy to report that my tart turned out perfectly delicious!

    There were two mandatory elements of the challenge: the Sweet Shortcrust Pastry and the Frangipane (a filling made from almonds). An optional element was to make homemade jam or curd. Having never made jam before I was planning on giving it a go, but when I had some unexpected dinner guests, I decided to use Smuckers Seedless Blackberry jam.

    The shortcrust came together easily. I’m not a fan of almond extract, so I substitute vanilla in the crust and the frangipane. I don’t have a kitchen scale, so converting to cups was a bit of a challenge because the online converters I Goggled gave me different measurements. I ended up using 1 ¾ cups flour in the crust, which was probably too much and I had to use 4 ½ T. water.

    I used 1 cup powdered sugar, ⅔ cup almond meal and ¼ cup flour in the frangipane, which seemed about right to me. I put little dollops of the frangipane all over the top of the jam, which really helped when spreading the frangipane. My tart was nicely browned and set after only 25 minutes.

    Bakewell Tart

    Bakewell Tart…er…pudding

    Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
    Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
    Resting time: 15 minutes
    Baking time: 30 minutes
    Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

    One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
    Bench flour
    250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
    One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
    One handful blanched, flaked almonds

    Assembling the tart
    Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it’s overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (¼”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

    Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

    Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

    The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

    When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

    Jasmine’s notes:
    • If you cannot have nuts, you can try substituting Victoria sponge for the frangipane. It’s a pretty popular popular cake, so you shouldn’t have any troubles finding one in one of your cookbooks or through a Google search. That said, our dear Natalie at Gluten a Go Go has sourced some recipes and linked to them in the related alt.db thread.
    • You can use whichever jam you wish, but if you choose something with a lot of seeds, such as raspberry or blackberry, you should sieve them out.
    • The jam quantity can be anywhere from 60ml (¼ cup) to 250ml (1cup), depending upon how “damp” and strongly flavoured your preserves are. I made it with the lesser quantity of home made strawberry jam, while Annemarie made it with the greater quantity of cherry jam; we both had fabulous results. If in doubt, just split the difference and spread 150ml (⅔cup) on the crust.
    Annemarie’s notes:
    • The excess shortcrust can be rolled out and cut into cookie-shapes (heck, it’s pretty darned close to a shortbread dough).

    Sweet shortcrust pastry

    Prep time: 15-20 minutes
    Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
    Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

    225g (8oz) all purpose flour
    30g (1oz) sugar
    2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
    110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
    2 (2) egg yolks
    2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
    15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

    Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

    Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

    Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

    Jasmine’s notes:
    • I make this using vanilla salt and vanilla sugar.
    • If you wish, you can substitute the seeds of one vanilla bean, one teaspoon of vanilla paste or one teaspoon of vanilla extract for the almond extract

    Frangipane

    Prep time: 10-15 minutes
    Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

    125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
    125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
    3 (3) eggs
    2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
    125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
    30g (1oz) all purpose flour

    Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

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    About Melissa & Barbara

    As of June 2022 Melissa Griffiths now is the one adding recipes. So think of it as Barbara Bakes, and Melissa too! Melissa and Barbara have been blogging friends for over 10 years and when Barbara was ready to retire and spend more time with her family, Melissa took over the site. Read more...

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      Recipe Rating




    1. CookiePie

      July 06, 2009 at 3:10 am

      That looks beautiful – I bet the blackberry was yummy!!

      Reply
    2. Snooky doodle

      July 05, 2009 at 6:20 pm

      this looks delicious! yummy wish I had a slice 🙂

      Reply
    3. Rosa's Yummy Yums

      July 02, 2009 at 9:19 am

      What a lovely tart! Very well done!

      Cheers,

      Rosa

      Reply
    4. Jamie

      July 01, 2009 at 5:22 pm

      Luscious looking tart and I love the blackberry jam addition! Yum! Great job, it is beautiful! I have got to make one of these!

      Reply
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