This week was pastry week, one of our faves. We were torn between a filo creation and the bakewell tart.
But really, making our own filo pastry seemed like a lot of hard work, with ideas in mind we will probably return to that in the future and stick to the bakewell for now. We are already on week 5 and we have not tried a technically challenge yet so this was the perfect opportunity!
There were a few disasters in this week technical, but Val has gone, Candice has won star baker twice and Selasi is still in, so all is going well! We have taken Mary’s recipe, thrown away the instructions (however they will be included in this post) and attempting the Bakewell ourselves. First we started with our pastry case, we used a food processor to crumb together the flour, icing sugar and butter. We then blitzed in the egg and a few drops of cold water to let to pastry form a firm dough.
We then rolled the dough out so it is nice and thin and lined our tart case, trimmed off the excess and popped in the fridge for about 30 mins whilst we made the jam. To make the jam we put the jam sugar and raspberries into a saucepan and bought to a boil, we let that bubble away for a few minutes so it will thicken and set when it was cool. We then blind baked our case using baking beans for about 10-15 mins. After the edged began to brown we took away the parchment and beans and baked for a further 5 minutes.
Next we made the frangipani mix, by creaming together the butter and sugar together in a bowl with a wooden spoon. We then added the egg and almond extract before finally adding the almonds. We spooned some of the jam to make a good layer across the base, then spooned the frangipani mix over the jam. Baked in the oven for about 25mins until a knife came out clean (we guessed on time here)
Next we let the tart cool before making the icing, keep a small amount separate to colour pink. Spread the icing over the top and whilst it was still wet we piped the pink icing in lines and used a cocktail stick to create a feather effect.
No soggy bottoms in here Mez!
- 200g/7oz raspberries
- 250g/9oz jam sugar
- 225g/8oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 150g/5½oz butter, chilled
- 25g/1oz icing sugar
- 1 large free-range egg, beaten
- 150g/5½oz butter, softened
- 150g/5½oz caster sugar
- 150g/5½oz ground almonds
- 1 large free-range egg, beaten
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 300g/10½oz icing sugar
- 1 tsp almond extract
- pink food colouring gel
- For the jam, put the raspberries in a small, deep-sided saucepan and crush them using a masher. Add the sugar and bring to the boil over a low heat until the sugar has melted. Increase the heat and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and carefully pour into a shallow container. Leave to cool and set.
- For the pastry, measure the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the icing sugar. Add the egg and 2 tablespoons cold water, mixing to form soft dough.
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to the thickness of a pound coin. Line a 23cm/9in fluted flan tin and transfer to the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
- Line the pastry case with non-stick baking paper and fill with baking beans or uncooked rice. Bake blind for 15 minutes, then remove the beans and paper and cook for a further 5 minutes to dry out the base. Set aside to cool a little before adding the filling.
- For the filling, spread the base of the pastry case with 4 tablespoons of raspberry jam.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the ground almonds, egg and almond extract and mix together. Spoon the mixture into the pastry case and smooth the surface using a palette knife.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and bake for 25–35 minutes, until golden-brown and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely in the tin.
- For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Stir in the almond extract and about 3 tablespoons cold water to make a smooth, fairly thick icing. Place 3 tablespoons of the icing in a separate bowl and add a little pink food colouring gel to make a raspberry coloured icing. Spoon the pink icing into a small piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle.
- When the tart has cooled completely, spoon the white icing on top and spread to form a smooth surface. Pipe parallel lines of pink icing over the white icing, then drag a cocktail stick through the lines (at a 90 degree angle to the lines) to create a feathered effect. Leave to set, then serve in slices.
