Mary Berry's Bakewell tart
For those that only like a little icing, Mary's drizzled version of the classic Bakewell tart will be a hit at tea time.
Ingredients
For the shortcrust pastry
- 175g/6oz plain flour
- 75g/2½oz chilled butter
- 2–3 tbsp cold water
For the filling
- 3–4 tbsp raspberry jam
- 125g/4½oz butter
- 125g/4½oz caster sugar
- 125g/4½oz ground almonds
- 1 free-range egg, beaten
- ½ tsp almond extract
- 50g/1¾oz flaked almonds
For the icing
- 80g/2¾oz icing sugar
Method
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, mixing to form a soft dough.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface and use to line a 20cm/8in flan tin. Leave in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
Line the pastry case with kitchen foil and fill with baking beans. Bake blind for about 15 minutes, then remove the beans and foil and cook for a further 5 minutes to dry out the base.
For the filing, spread the base of the flan generously with raspberry jam.
Melt the butter in a pan, take off the heat and then stir in the sugar. Add ground almonds, egg and almond extract. Pour into the flan tin and sprinkle over the flaked almonds.
Bake for about 35 minutes. If the almonds seem to be browning too quickly, cover the tart loosely with foil to prevent them burning.
Meanwhile, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Stir in 2½ teaspoons cold water and transfer to a piping bag.
Once you have removed the tart from the oven, 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 instead. You can also use baking paper instead of kitchen foil – scrunch it up first so it will lay in the tin better.
