Bakewell Tarts
This recipe has been adapted from a William Curley recipe in his book Patisserie.
Equipment
- 12 hole deep muffin tin
- Cookie cutter big enough for your muffin tin
- disposable piping bag
Ingredients
- ***Sweet Pastry***
- 165 g Unsalted Butter softened
- 130 g Icing Sugar
- 1 Small Egg
- 330 g Plain Flour
- 1 g Fine Salt
- ***Frangipane***
- 165 g Unsalted Butter softened
- 165 g Caster Sugar
- 165 g Eggs 3-4 eggs
- 165 g Ground Almonds
- 30 g Plain Flour
- ***Light nappage***
- 75 ml Water
- 75 g Liquid Glucose
- 10 g Caster Sugar
- 4 g Pectin
- ***To assemble***
- 50 g Flaked Almonds
- 120 ml Red Berry Coulis (or jam of your choice)
Instructions
- Begin by making the pastry, this can be made up to 2 days in advance if you want to make these in stages. Put the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat until soft and smooth. Add the icing sugar and beat together until smooth.
- Add the egg and beat until fully emulsified, you may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Mix in the flour and continue to beat until it is a soft mass.
- Turn the dough out onto a work surface, using your hands shape it into a square block and wrap in clingfilm. Place in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.
- Next make the light fruit nappage, you will use this to glaze your finish frangipane and make them nice and shiny. Place the sugar and pectin in a small bowl together and give it a stir to mix them.
- Place the water and glucose in a very small saucepan and bring it to a boil. Whisk the sugar and pectin into the liquid and cook for 2-3 minutes. Transfer the mixture to an airtight container and leave to cool before placing in the fridge. This can be made up to a week in advance and stored in the fridge.
- When ready to make the tarts, roll out the pastry to a thickness of about 5mm on a lightly floured surface. Take a cookie that is slightly larger than the size of your muffin tin and stamp out circles of pastry. You will have some pastry leftover.
- Press the pastry rounds into the muffin tin and press it into the sides and bottom of the cavities. You will find that the pastry will crack (it's a very short pastry), just patch any holes with scraps of pastry and press them down firmly.
- Once you've filled all the holes, transfer the tray to the fridge to chill whilst you make the frangipane. If you have any leftover pastry you can roll it out and stamp out small biscuit sized circles and then place these on a lined baking tray. These can be baked at the same time as the bakewell tarts and then left to cool and eaten like biscuits.
- To make the frangipane put the butter and caster sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until smooth.
- Add the eggs in batches and beat until combined. Then using a spoon or spatula, add the ground almonds and flour and fold them in gently until smooth. If you have a piping bag, place the frangipane in the piping bag, ready to pipe it into the pastry cases. If you don't have a piping bag, a spoon will do.
- Preheat the oven to 170C Fan/180 C/Gas 4. Take the chilled pastry cases from the fridge and place 10ml (2 tsp) of red berry coulis in the base of each pastry case.
- Gently pipe frangipane to the top of the pastry case (don't go too high as it will expand when cooking), trying to seal in the coulis to stop it bursting out. Sprinkle generously with flaked almonds.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the tops are golden - you don't want them too pale as you want to allow the pastry time to cook as well.
- When done remove the tray from the oven and leave to cool in the tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. This will help the pastry firm up and not be soggy. This is a very sweet crumbly pastry though, so will only firm up a small amount.
- When the bakewell tarts are cooled, take the nappage and place in a pan and heat gently until it becomes liquid. You don't want to boil it again, just get it warm. Using a pastry brush, brush a thin layer on each bakewell tart and leave to set.
- You don't need to do the last step, but it makes them look more appeal. These also freeze really well and you can microwave them to defrost. I like them slightly warm with a big dollop of greek yoghurt to cut through the sweetness.