Cherry Bakewell Tarts

I may well be lynched for saying this, but when I actually had proper Bakewell Tart from Bakewell in Derbyshire, I wasn’t that keen. I prefer the twist on the theme – the cherry bakewell which takes all the good points i.e. the pastry, the almond filling and adds sweet white icing and then, a cherry on the top.

Here’s the tart 'nude' i.e. before the icing and cherry (I'm sorry if that sentence got anyone excited and expecting something different!):


I’d been looking for a recipe that required glacé cherries since I purchased a ridiculously expensive pot of them at Borough Market . They look quite beautiful on the finished tart – quite literally the cherry on the icing on the cake!


Don’t worry about the jam bubbling up through the almond mix - as long as you ensure the almond mix completely covers the jam you won’t have any problems when baking.

The measurements set out in the recipe produced 14 tarts for me, but my tart tray is quite deep; if you use a shallow tray you may get more.

Make sure that you put the cherry on top before the icing has set so it can’t fall off:


How can they fail to please – just look at the layers: pastry, jam, almond sponge, icing, cherry. Plus, they look like a cartoon drawing of a cake; I think that if you asked a child to draw a cake most would end up with something like this.


Ingredients:
For the rich shortcrust pastry:
225g Plain flour
175g Unsalted butter, soft
1 Egg yolk
2 teaspoons caster sugar
Cold water as required – I needed only a couple of teaspoons.

For the Bakewell filling:
100g Unsalted butter
100g Caster sugar
2 Eggs
50g Ground almonds
50g Self Raising flour
1 teaspoon Almond essence (I’ve only just discovered almond extract is available from Lakeland)
Strawberry jam

For the icing:
175g Icing Sugar
1-2 tablespoons water
7 Glacé cherries (half for each tart)

How to make:

- Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Add the egg yolk and sugar and mix with a knife (it’s more effective than a spoon).
- Add enough water to bring the dough together – you’re aiming for firm but not hard. I always use my hands to do this as it gives you better control.
- If you’ve added too much water and the dough is sticky, don’t panic – just add a little more flour.
- Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
- preheat oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/ Gas mark 6 and grease 14 patty tins i.e. the individual little patty indents – not 14 tins, that would be silly!
- Roll out the pastry between two sheets of greaseproof paper, this saves you having to use any extra flour. However, if you prefer, roll out on a floured board.
- Using a cutter slightly bigger than the diameter of your patty tin indents, cut out 14 circles. You will have to re-roll the pastry to get this many but it’s very good natured and will re-roll several times.
- Line the greased tins with the pastry disks and spoon some jam onto each one. I used about half a heaped teaspoon for each tart.
- Now make the almond filling. Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time, and after each egg, add half of the ground almonds. The mix will curdle but don’ panic – as soon as you add the flour it will correct itself.
- Add the flour and almond essence and stir well. You can just mix it – there’s no need to fold or be careful.
- Spoon the mix into each pastry case and bake for 20 minutes. Mine took exactly this time.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely before removing from the tin. This is because the pastry is fragile when fresh from the oven and firms as it cools.
- Mix together the icing sugar and water until smooth and glossy – adjust the measurements as required to get the right thickness. You’re aiming for thick but still runny, opaque and glossy.
- Spoon onto the top of each tart. Before fully set, add half a glacé cherry on top.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.