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.
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.
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