JK's Bakewell Tart

Finally loading my photos for the Bakewell Tart.
Interesting. Tasty.

But, I also found the baking time to be not nearly enough. After 40 minutes, it was still "googy-er than I thought it should be. The crust was getting too brown, so I decided to take it out of the oven at that point.

We don't have Bakewell Tarts here in the Midwest - so I had no idea what it was supposed to be like.


We only have deserts (pies, cakes, cookies) for special occasions, like Thanksgiving and birthdays. And I don't eat many "sweets" - unless it's chocolate - so... I found this to be VERY sweet.

Making this recipe gave me the opportunity to use the food processor that's been stored in the hall closet for several years. :-)

JC: The film 'Juile and Julia' is coming to a cinema near me soon :-)

JS: Bakewell Tart UK : 5 days on and there is NO tart leftJ. I got all the ingredients, but forgot the baking beans. Possibly, because I had never heard of them before. In the good old days we used dried peas or beans, or simply pricked the pastry base with a fork.

I divided the pastry mix into four so I could blitz it in my small multiquick gadget. The result was like very fine breadcrumbs. Great I thought, my pastry might just be like my Step Mom’s – ‘melt in the mouth kind’. After chilling and rolling out I had more than enough to fit my 8.5” tart plate. Should have made jam tarts, but instead cut the spare pastry into ‘pastry straws’ to eat straight out of the oven.

The filling mixed according to plan/recipe, but the cooking did not. After the said 20mins, the centre of the pie was still pale and runny, so I turned the oven down to 300F, moved the pie to a lower shelf and there it stayed for another 25 mins!!!. Now it was evenly risen and nicely browned. However when cutting it still hot from the oven, the centre was damp and runny, but tasted great. We had it cold the following day, then heated it gently in the microwave and served it with icecream the day after. As for the pastry straws – they got binned. Despite my hopes of pastry similar to my step Mom’s … it was not. Possibly because of the longer cook time though the straws only got 20 mins of cooking. The fact that it had sugar in did not help. But it was certainly not melt in the mouth short crust pastry.

Would I do this again? Yes for special occasions. It was light, tasty and not too sweet. With the amount of eggs and ground almonds it was more expensive than I would normally use. I’d also buy the pastry case or buy frozen short crust pastry for the base. For a more economical bakewell tart I would use my circa 1962 school cookery book recipe: For the short crust pastry – 4 oz flour, 2oz butter or margarine, egg yolk or water to bind. Filling – 2 oz butter or margarine, 3 oz sugar, 3 oz cake crumbs, 3 oz ground almonds, 2 large eggs. I have also done mini bakewell tarts for my girl’s lunch boxes using a light sponge mix and almond essence.

D's Bakewell Tart

D:I have been a fan of Simon Rimmer and his cooking for about three years now. When Bakewell Tart was decided as the British recipe and I found Simon’s recipe for the dish in his book ‘Rebel Cook’ it just had to be made.

For research purposes I had a slice of Bakewell Tart with my coffee in M&S yesterday which was very moist and tasty. However just like the Mr Kipling shop bought individual Bakewell Tarts, the one in M&S had icing on it. Simon’s recipe is made without icing so as I am a huge fan of icing/frosting, I was hoping that the tart tasted just as nice without.

There are many variations of the Bakewell Tart recipe. Just this morning I saw the Hairy Bikers use eight eggs in the filling as part of their TV show ‘Hairy Bakers’. They even visited Bakewell in Derbyshire from where the tart takes its name.

The ingredients this time were easier to find but I had to by a tart tin and some baking beans. For those of you who don’t know what baking beans are, they are ceramic balls that you line the pastry case with when you bake it blind. I eventually found some baking beans in TK Maxx of all places so it’s not just for designer clothes! They even had Root Beer the other week.

With all the ingredients at the ready the pressure was on to make a really good Bakewell Tart to take to friends for dinner. I had my back up dessert plan at the ready too - McFlurries at MacDonalds!!!

As usual I found the recipe easy to follow, as I have other Simon Rimmer recipes. The pastry was made by hand as I do not have a food processor. There’s nowhere to put one in my kitchen! You can’t even swing a cat in there! With this in mind I decided to do things the old fashioned way and make the whole recipe by hand. Creaming the butter and the sugar was hard work!

I found that I had some left over pastry so I used that to make some jam tarts. They were good with a cup of tea after I’d finished baking.

When the filling was cooking I found that I had to cook it for about 28 minutes not the 20 minutes that the recipe called for. The middle seemed to take a while to set and it wasn’t golden after the initial 20 minutes hence the longer cooking time.

The next challenge was how to transport the Bakewell Tart in my car! Luckily it survived the car journey in the foot well wrapped in foil, still in the tin.

It was a successful dessert to a roast chicken dinner. Empty plates and lots of positive comments. The adults enjoyed the subtle almond flavour and the lemon zest. The children still wanted icing and a glace cherry as well, just like the Mr Kipling ones. Although I love icing in this case I think it would have made the tart too sweet.

Cold Spanakopitas

D: A friend came to lunch yesterday and we had the spanakopitas cold. They were even more delicious I think than when they are hot. This is possibly because I enjoy pasties, pies and quiches cold.

I have taken one of the spanakopitas out of the freezer for lunch tomorrow and I am hoping it will defrost without being soggy. Will let you know.

JC: Dinner Spanakopitas – UK style

A Bank Holiday weekend seemed a good idea to bake. Usually wet, dull and cold! And it was.
I had no problem with any of the ingredients – due to the fact that being a ‘creator’ I usually change recipes. I missed out on the parmesan cheese, yellow onion [I had small red ones in the fridge] and unsalted butter. I used a vegetable spread instead. As I would be the only one eating these strudels [Bank Holiday everyone is ‘somewhere’ already, or they do not want to face the crowded motorways of the UK] I halved the ingredients. Never before purchased frozen spinach, so was very pleased to see it came in 2”x3” cubes. Each weighed about 2ounces so just 5 were needed. For the bread crumbs, I dried a slice of bread in the microwave and then blitz it into breadcrumbs. While the onions were cooking gently, I examined my filo pastry package. It said 6 sheets which seemed fine for ½ the recipe. However, once on the work surface ……… there was a problem. At 18.5” x 10” per sheet, I was not going to be able to make 6 strudels and wrap them so the filling would not ooze out. The filling had mixed well but there was a lot of it. I did add extra pine nuts as I love them. As my eyes went from the filling to the sheets of filo ….. the problem was fixed. I’d make it into a long sausage shape strudel. The filling filled the long length of the sheet and I was able to roll it over several times. With the ends sealed [extra melted Flora and a firm thumb] and the seam side down, the filling was going to stay where it should. I was concerned about the extra salt on the top as feta cheese is quite salty, but added some anyway. Getting it onto the baking tray called for a sheet of baking paper to be placed under the strudel. The sheet was then pulled slowly onto the baking tray. After 35 minutes it looked a light golden brown. But, I did not take it out immediately and that was a mistake. The top layer of the pastry had a ‘hard’ crisp rather than a gentle crisp. Luckily the other layers were just fine.
Now, because the oven was on, and I could hear echoes of my Mom, who grew up in WWII and rationing, saying ‘fill the oven’, ‘don’t waste the heat’. So that is what I did. I had some courgettes given me, so made a courgette and cheese gratin to go with the strudel and 12 chocolate and courgette muffins. This left me with PLENTY of washing up as most of the plastic stuff would not go in the dishwasher. But, with the kitchen to myself and country music on the tape player I was happy.
The strudel cut into three with one in the fridge for Monday and one put in the freezer. Still thinking on best way to reheat – ideally in the oven as microwaving will just make the filo pastry tough. The strudel was very tasty, with the pine nuts giving texture to the meal. And it was worth the sprinkle of salt on top of the strudel. It gave that extra taste as you took the first bite. I would do this again, but you need to plan ahead. It would also be best if guests were coming and you could share in the enjoyment.