Mary Berry's Bakewell Tart

Last weeks Great British Bake Off was all about pastry. The technical challenge was a Bakewell tart. I love traditional Bakewell tarts so could not resist making one.

So I found Mary's recipe on BBC Good Food and got baking!

For this weeks Bake Off post I have used some great ingredients from Aldi. Like other produce from Aldi they are all at prices which you simply cannot go wrong with. There are also many baking products that are available at Aldi on their Special Buys. Their The Pantry range consists of various different flours, sugars, food colourings, nuts, dried fruit, baking chocolate and many other items to help you bake. Baking is such an enjoyable pastime and one that does not need to cost a great deal. Last week I even found some jam sugar which has come in handy as we have got a lot of raspberries to harvest!

This is how I got on making Mary Berry's Bakewell Tart...

Mary Berry's Bakewell Tart

Ingredients

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

225g plain flour
150g butter, chilled and cubed
25g icing sugar
1 egg

Filling

150g butter, room temperature
150g caster sugar
150g ground almonds
1 egg
4 tbsp raspberry and star anise jam (recipe to follow!)

Icing

300g icing sugar
Pink food colouring

Method

1 - To make the pastry place the flour in a mixing bowl and rub in the butter until you have a breadcrumb consistency

2 - Add the icing sugar, egg and 1 tbsp of cold water, you can add an additional tbsp of cold water if needed

3 - Mix to form a dough, remove from the bowl and place on a floured work top

4 - Roll the pastry out to the thickness of a pound coin and place in a loose bottomed flan tin that has been lined with baking paper

5 - Leave the pastry base in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes

6 - Pre heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas mark 6

7 - Remove the pastry base from the fridge, line with baking paper and fill with baking beans

8 - Place in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for 15 minutes

9 - After 15 minutes remove the baking beans and the baking paper and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes or until the base has dried out

10 - Once browned off remove from the oven and leave on one side to cool a little while you prepare the filling

11 - To make the almond filling simply mix together the butter and caster sugar until light and creamy

12 - Add the egg, ground almonds and mix thoroughly

13 - Place the jam in a bowl and mix to soften it up a little

14 - Smooth the jam onto the base of the pastry case and create an even layer

15 - Spoon the almond mixture onto the top of the jam and smooth over using a pallet knife

16 - Place in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for 25 - 35 minutes or until golden on the top and a knife come out clean

17 - Take the tart from the oven and remove from the tin, place on a cooling rack and leave to cool completely

18 - To make the icing sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add 3 tablespoons on cold water and mix thoroughly

19 - Place 2 dessert spoons of the icing into a separate bowl and add a little pink food colouring

20 - Once the tart is completely cooled pour the white icing over the top of the tart and smooth out so that you have an even finish

21 - Place the pink icing into a disposable icing bag and snip off a small hole at the end

22 - Pipe over pink parallel lines all the way over the tart leaving an even space between

23 - Taking a cocktail stick, drag the end through the pink lines, going in the opposite direction to create a feathered effect

24 - Leave the icing to set before serving

I was delighted with how the tart came out. I have never made one before and there was no a soggy bottom in sight. The only issue I did have was that the middle sunk a little but it certainly did not effect the taste. I have used my own homemade raspberry and star anise jam using homegrown autumn raspberries that we have in our fruit frame. I am planning to share the jam recipe later in the week as it has to be the best jam that I have made to date!

Enjoy x

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post