I adore Bakewell tarts. There's something so restorative about a huge slice with a cup of tea, it's like coming home. You'll have some summer fruit jam left over but surely that can't be a bad thing? This recipe is for a 23cm deep sided tart tin, the one in the pic was made in a 20x20 traybake tin.
Pastry
250g plain flour
125g cold butter cubed
2 egg yolks
Bring the plain flour and butter together in a food processor or by hand until you have a breadcrumb consistency, add the egg yolks blitz, add a little cold water to bring together. Wrap in clingflim and chill for at least an hour.
or a pkt of ready roll shortcrust
250g soft fruits (I used strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries)
250g caster Sugar
150g self-raising flour
150g unsalted butter, softened
150g caster sugar
50g ground almonds
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
50g flaked almonds
Handful of soft fruits
icing sugar for dusting
You will also need a 23cm deep tart tin with a depth of about 3 ½ cm.
Pour the sugar and fruits into a pan, crush a few of the berries and leave for a while so the sugar starts to dissolve, pop onto the heat until all the sugar has liquified, turn up the heat and cook on a rolling boil for 15 mins watching all the time to ensure it doesn't bubble over, skim off the froth and decant into a sterile wide dish (or jar if overnight) and cool before setting in the fridge for at least 4 hours (preferably overnight)
Lightly dust the work surface with flour and roll the pastry out into a neat disc with a thickness of about 2mm. Carefully line the tart tin, being sure to push the pastry neatly into the corners and trimming off the excess pastry from the top. Prick the base of the tart shell several times with a fork. Screw up a sheet of baking parchment and use to line the inside of the pastry case. Chill for 10 minutes in the freezer.
Preheat the oven to 190c
Tip baking beans into the pastry case and blind bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for 20 minutes until pale golden. Remove the baking parchment and beans. Reduce the oven temperature to 170c/325f/Gas mark 3 and bake the pastry case for a further 5 minutes.
To make the filling tip the flour, butter, sugar, ground almonds and eggs into the bowl of the food processor and blend until smooth. Add the almond extract.
Spread about 6 tbsps of your jam over the base of the tart shell, tumble in the soft fruits and carefully spoon the batter on top in an even layer. Scatter with flaked almonds and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 35-40 minutes until golden. If the top of the tart starts to brown too quickly loosely cover the tart with a sheet of foil.
Leave the tart to cool to room temperature before dusting with icing sugar to serve.
