What We're Eating : Bakewell Tart

A true British classic, Bakewell Tart is best served slightly warm with a dollop of lightly whipped cream.

This recipe takes between 30 minutes - 1 hour to prepare and bake and makes 1 cake to slice as you wish! So let's get started.......

Ingredients.

For the pastry:

• 425g of Plain Flour (plus extra for dusting)
• 1 Free-range Egg (beaten)
• 2 Free-range Egg Yolks
• 250g of Unsalted Butter
• 100g of Caster Sugar
• ½ Teaspoon of Salt
• 50g of Ground Almonds

For the filling:

• 400g of Ground Almonds
• 175g of Caster Sugar
• 8 Free-range Eggs (beaten)
• ½ Teaspoon of Almond Essence
• 3 Tablespoons of Raspberry Jam
• 50g od Flaked Almonds

Preparation Method.

• For the pastry, place the flour, salt, sugar, butter and almonds into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Add the eggs and egg yolks one at a time and pulse until a smooth dough is formed. 
• Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for half an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 180C/360F/Gas 4
• Grease and flour a 23cm/9in loose-bottomed tart tin.
• Unwrap the chilled pastry and roll out onto a cold, floured work surface.
• Line the tart tin with the pastry and trim off any excess. Prick the base with a fork, then cover the pastry lightly with some baking parchment. Cover the parchment with baking beads or uncooked rice and place in the oven to bake blind for 15 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and remove the baking beads/rice and the baking parchment, then set aside to cool. If the pastry base is still a little raw, return to the oven for 1-2 minutes to dry out.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 165C/330F/Gas 2.
• Meanwhile, for the filling, place the ground almonds and caster suger into a bowl and mix well. Add the beaten eggs and almond essence and mix well.
• When the pastry has cooled spread a generous layer or raspberry jam onto the base.
• Pour the filling mixture over the raspberry jam to fill the pastry case.
• Top with the flaked almonds, the bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the filling is baked through and golden-brown all over.
• Remove from the oven and allow the cool. You can serve warm or cold with a lightly whipped dollop of cream or ice-cream! Enjoy. 

Courtesy of BBC Food and The Hairy Bikers.