Bakewell Tart

This classic confection is a delicious combo of frangipane, raspberry jam and butterry shortcrust pastry.

Preparation time: 1 hour	Cooking time: 1 hour
Difficulty: Moderate	Serves: 8

Make it vegan: Replace the lard in the pastry with coconut oil or a plant-based shortening, and replace the butter in the pastry and frangipane with vegetable oil, cashew butter or non-dairy margarine. You can replace the egg in the frangipane with 80ml of almond milk or 80ml of whipped aquafaba (chickpea brine.)

Special Equipment

• A sieve
• A rolling pin
• A 20cm baking tin
• Some baking beans or pie weights
• Some baking paper

Instructions

1. Make the pastry: sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt. Rub in the fats with your fingertips, until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Then stir in two tablespoons of water (and if necessary, a tablespoon or two more) until you have a soft, pliable dough. Then pop the pastry in the fridge for half an hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 170’C/325’F/Gas Mark 3. 
3. Roll the pastry out into a 25cm circle on a lightly floured work surface. Transfer it to a 20cm pie tin and cut away any overhanging pastry.
4. Cover the pastry with baking paper and weigh it down with baking beans. Bake for 15 minutes. Then remove the beans and paper and return the pastry to the oven for a further 5 minutes. 
5. Remove the tin from the oven, then raise the oven temperature to 200°C/400’F/Gas Mark 6.
6. Spread two or three tablespoons of jam evenly over the base of the pastry.
7. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the caster sugar and cook, stirring, for a minute or two. Then remove the pan from the heat and leave the contents to cool for a couple of minutes, before stirring in the cornflour and ground almonds and then stirring in the eggs.
8. Pour the almond mixture over the pastry and return the tin to the oven. Bake for 40 minutes, rotating occasionally if necessary to ensure that the tart cooks evenly. If you are decorating the tart with flaked almonds, remove the tin from the oven after 20 minutes, sprinkle the flaked almonds over the frangipane, and then return the tart to the oven for a further 20 minutes. After 40 minutes’ total cooking time, the tart should look golden-brown and slightly risen.
9. If desired, you can sprinkle the finished tart with sieved icing sugar. It can be served warm or cold.
10. Bon Appetit!
    

Tips

• Make sure the butter and lard (or vegan substitutes) used in the pastry are cold. Rub them into the flour as quickly as possible so that you don’t warm them with your hands.
• When you roll out the pastry, do so on a lightly floured surface so it doesn’t stick. If it seems too sticky and wet, rub in some flour, a little at a time, until it’s less sticky. If it’s too dry, add small amounts of water until it’s a little drier.
• When the pastry is the right consistency, roll it out with the pin, turning the dough with your other hand after each couple of rolls, so that the dough is rolled out equally in different directions until it’s roughly circular. If it splits, roll it up into a ball and start again.
• To transfer it to the tart tin, place the rolling pin near the edge of the rolled out pastry and wrap the pastry slowly up around the pin. Then carefully unfold the pastry over the tart tin. Push it neatly into the tin, and cut away any overhanging pastry.
• If desired, you can use the pastry trimmings for decoration. Re-roll the trimmings out and use some pastry cutters to cut the dough into shapes. Then brush one side of the shapes with a little milk and place them milk side down on top of the tart before putting it in the oven.
• Rather than using shop bought ground almonds, try grinding unblanched whole almonds in a blender yourself and using these. Doing so will give the frangipane a far more powerful flavour.