I guess it's blueberry season now as I realized there are many bloggers had posted their bakes with blueberry which had given me lots of inspiration. I didn't think much and took two punnets of fresh blueberries when I saw it in the supermarket. At first, there are many ideas came to my mind whether to make muffins, pancake, juice or crumble etc but I don't really have the appetite to eat what is in my mind so ended up I choose to make a rustic yet with country feel of bakewell tart which will top with my fresh and juicy blueberries. I like bakewell tart because the almond bring lots of flavor with the combination of butter together with the shortcrust pasty. Normally I would like to make bakewell tart with plum or apple and here I found blueberry goes well well with it too! A piece of this nutty and buttery flavor tart for an afternoon tea, simplicity is my biggest satisfaction.
Recipe for 8 inches baking pan
For the pastry:
220g plain flour
110g unsalted butter
20g sugar powder
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks + 2 tbsp water
For the fillings:
95g ground almond
27g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
83g unsalted butter
55g caster sugar
1 egg
some blueberry jam
Method:
- For the pastry, add the cold water to the egg yolks and stir with a fork.
- Place the flour into the bowl of a food processor, followed by the cold butter, sugar powder and the salt.
- Turn the processor on and pulse several times until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Add two-thirds of the egg yolk/water mixture and pulse again. If the mixture is still too dry, add the remaining egg and water mixture (you may not need to use all of it). Be careful not to overwork the pastry. Stop pulsing when the mixture has the consistency of chunky breadcrumbs.
- Turn the pastry out onto a clean, floured work surface and, with floured hands, bring together to make a smooth dough, but don't knead.
- Shape into a flattened ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for about 10-15 minutes. You can keep the pastry at this stage for 2-3 days if not using it immediately.
- Remove the pastry from the fridge. On a clean, floured work surface, roll it out with a floured rolling pin until it's slightly larger than the flan ring. Using the rolling pin, lift the pastry and lay it over the flan ring.
- With your fingers, lightly press the pastry into the sides of the ring. Run a rolling pin over the top of the ring and pull away the excess pastry at the edges. Using your fingers, gently press the pastry up to slightly build up the height of the pastry at the edges. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork.
- For the fillings, blitz the butter, sugar and vanilla extract in a food processor until light and creamy.
- Add in the ground almond, plain flour and beaten eggs and whiz until completely mixed and smooth.
- Place in the fridge to firm up for at least half an hour.
- Spoon some blueberry jam into the pastry case then spread the almond batter over the blueberry jam.
- Arrange the blueberries on the surface of the almond batter, pressing them in lightly.
- Bake the tart in the 180'C preheated oven for about 30 minutes. Remove tarts from the oven and leave it to cool.
