Mary Berry's Bakewell tart

Mary Berry's Bakewell tart
Prepare
less than 30 mins
Cook
30 mins to 1 hour
Serve
Serves 8

For those that only like a little icing, Mary's drizzled version of the classic Bakewell tart will be a hit at tea time.

By Mary Berry

From The Great Comic Relief Bake Off

Shopping list

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry

For the filling

For the icing

Recipe tips
How-to videos

Method

  1. To make the pastry, measure the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the water, a little at a time, mixing to form a soft dough (you might not need all the water, only use as much as is necessary to bring the dough together).

  2. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to the thickness of a £1 coin. Use the rolling pin to lift the pastry into a 20cm/8in flan tin. Carefully press into the base. Put in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

  3. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.

  4. Line the pastry case with baking paper and fill with baking beans. Bake blind for about 15 minutes, then remove the beans and paper and cook for a further 5 minutes to dry out the base. Set aside to cool.

  5. For the filing, spread the base of the pastry generously with raspberry jam.

  6. Melt the butter in a saucepan, take off the heat and then stir in the sugar. Add ground almonds, egg and almond extract and stir to combine. Pour into the flan tin and sprinkle over the flaked almonds.

  7. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the filling is golden brown and springs back when touched. Check after 20 minutes, if the almonds seem to be browning too quickly, cover the tart loosely with kitchen foil to prevent them burning.

  8. Meanwhile, put the icing sugar in a bowl with 2½ teaspoons cold water. Stir well then transfer to a piping bag (alternatively just drizzle the icing from a teaspoon).

  9. Once the tart is cooked and cooled, pipe or drizzle the icing over the top, giving an informal zig zag effect.

Recipe tips

If you don't own baking beans you can use uncooked rice or pulses instead.

When blind baking it helps to scrunch the baking paper up first as it will lay in the tin better.

The key to great pastry is to keep everything cold and to avoid overworking the dough.

If your pastry tears when you add it to the tin, don't worry, just use a little excess pastry to patch it up.

Raspberry jam is the classic flavour, but strawberry, cherry and blackberry are also delicious.

If you prefer more icing, omit the flaked almonds and make triple the amount of icing (which should be enough to cover the tart with a thin layer). Make sure the tart is cold before doing this or the icing will melt into the Bakewell.

If you aren't keen on icing, bakewell tarts are delicious without it. A light dusting of icing sugar just before serving will give a professional finish, if you feel it needs a final flourish.