23 April, 2011

Blackberry bakewell tart

As promised, I will post the recipe of the luxurious Blackberry Bakewell Tart, which I showed and told you  about. It caused a lot of confusion in people of FaceBook since I was trying to convince all of them that this version is not fattening, let alone unhealthy. Well, what can I say?
I still believe that what I said is true but you, my beloved reader, please decide it for yourself.

Blackberry Bakewell Tart
Sweet shortcrust pastry from Jamie Oliver (my version makes about 0,4kg)

125 g wholemeal flour
125 g low-carb flour
50g sugar worth sweetener (depends on your preference. I like using liquid but you can use granulated)
125 g yoghurt butter (contains 20% less fat than normal butter)
zest of half a lemon
1 large egg (organic if possible)
a splash of milk

5 heaped tablespoon of sugar free blackberry jam for brushing and frozen blackberries (fresh would make the pastry too soggy)

almond paste (from Jamie's monster bake sale booklet)

200 g yoghurt butter
200g sugar worth sweetener (I recommend granulated here)
3 eggs
vanilla essence or fresh vanilla seed (scrape out the seeds of one pod)
200g ground almond
almond essence

to decorate:
25g flaked almond

I made the shortcrust pastry the previous evening. It can sit nicely in the fridge a night and get ready for the baking next morning.

If you don't have time to make the pastry in advance, then preheat the over to 180° and definitely use your food processor for making the pastry.If you don't have a food processor, then you can use your hands, but make sure that you don't work the pastry too long because from the warmth of your hands the pastry can become too soft. Therefore, I recommend all of you using the food processor because you can avoid any failure with the tricky shortcrust.

In the food processor blitz the butter, the flours, the sweetener together with the zest of the lemon. The pastry should be like sand at this stage. Then add the egg and the milk and work for one more minute till the pastry shapes a dough. Quickly turn the pastry out of the machine onto some clingfilm, wrap it and put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes or into the deep freeze for  10 minutes (be careful with the deep freezer, cause it can turn your pastry into stone and then the consistency of the baked pastry will be very crumbly and too dry).

Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll it out quickly on a flour dusted surface or between two sheets of clingfilm (I prefer this method because it makes the process quicker, less messy and easier). With the help of the rolling pin put the pastry into the tart tin, that you have slightly brushed with butter and dusted with wholemeal flour beforehand (or if you are in a lazy mood then baking parchment will work as well) and trim off the excess pastry from the edge.


Blind bake the pastry. It means that it is baked in the oven for 10-12 minutes on 180° without any filling, just with some parchment on the top and beans or lentil is used to weigh down the pastry, preventing it from bubbling up. Remove the beans and the parchment and give it an extra 7-10 minutes in the oven.

I, myself not a big fan of blind baking this way so I put down my method here: pastry in the tin, back to the fridge for 10 more minutes. Take it out of the fridge and prick it with a fork everywhere but make sure that you don't go through the pastry to the bottom of the tin and then bake us usual. If any bubbles appear (for me it never has happened so far) then put on your oven gloves and slightly press down the air bubbles while it is still hot (I read this method actually in Delia's book and this is her recommendation).

Let the pastry cool down and in the meantime make the almond filling.
Start by whisking up the egg whites with a pinch of salt. Put it aside or in the fridge. 
Slightly melt the butter and whisk it with the egg yokes and the sweetener. Add the vanilla and the almond essence and stir in the ground almond carefully. Here is my trick of the day, I added a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to the ground almond, to make the filling lighter and fluffier. It is not necessary of course but you can give a try. Now, very carefully fold in the egg whites, make sure that it is evenly but gently stirred in.

Brush the bakes shortcrust pastry with the jam and scatter with frozen blackberries. I do not like using fresh here as it would make the pastry too wet and the crust would be lost from the pastry.

Now really carefully smear the almond paste on the top of the berries and decorate the top with flaked almond.

In the oven bake the tart for 30 minutes until the top gets golden. Remove from the oven and let it cool.

and serve with light chocolate ice-cream....

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