Bakewell Tart | CBC Life (2024)

CBC Life

· Posted: Mar 21, 2021 8:30 PM EDT | Last Updated: March 22, 2021

Makes: 1 10-inch tart

The Bakewell tart is a British classic. It’s made with a beautiful pâte sablée crust, a layer of tart raspberry jam, a perfect frangipane filling and a glorious icing with a perfect finish.

The Bakewell tart was the Technical Bake for Pastry Week on The Great Canadian Baking Show, Season 4.

Egg Temperature Tip: Using a fridge-cold egg for the pastry makes handling it easier, while a room-temperature egg helps the frangipane emulsify. However, you will have a level of success with either. If you find that the filling looks like it’s on the verge of splitting, whip at a higher speed for a moment or two to bring it together before adding your dry ingredients.

Ingredients

Sablée Pastry

• 1 ¾ cups (195 g) pastry flour
• 7 tbsp (100 g) cold butter, cubed
• ½ cup (56 g) icing sugar
• ¼ cup (25 g) almond flour
• ½ tsp (2 g) salt
• 1 egg, beaten

Raspberry Jam

• 2 ½ cups (325 g) raspberries
• ½ cup(100 g) granulated sugar

Frangipane

• ½ cup butter (112 g), softened
• ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
• 1 egg, at room temperature, beaten* (see tip above)
• 1 tsp (2 ml) almond extract
• 1 ¼ cups (130 g) almond flour
• 2 tbsp (16 g) flour
• ½ tsp (2 g) salt

Icing and decor

• 3 cups (340 g) icing sugar, sifted
• ¼ cup (60 ml) water
• 1 tsp (5 ml) almond extract
• No-taste red food colouring gel
• 1 red glacé cherry

Preparation

Sablée Pastry

Heat oven to 400 F.

Place flour and butter in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade. Pulse until the butter resembles fine crumbs.

Transfer to a medium bowl, whisk in icing sugar, almond flour and salt.

Stir in egg with a fork. Gently knead dough together until uniform. Wrap in plastic wrap. Flatten to a ½-inch thick disk and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Roll dough to a 12-inch round. Line tart pan with dough; trim excess. Dock (prick with a fork) all over with a fork and refrigerate.

Raspberry Jam

Meanwhile, mash raspberries with sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring often, for 4 to 5 minutes, until thick and dark red. Reduce heat to prevent sticking, if needed.

Strain into a medium bowl. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Bake Tart Shell

Remove tart shell from fridge. Line with aluminum foil to cover the pastry completely and fill with pie weights/beans. Bake on a half sheet pan for 28 minutes.

Frangipane

Meanwhile, cream together butter and sugar with a hand mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg and almond extract.

Whisk together almond flour, flour and salt in a small bowl. Stir into butter mixture until fully combined.

Drop oven temperature to 350 F, remove weights and foil and return tart shell to oven for 3 to 4 minutes, or until pale but completely matte. Let cool on counter for 5 minutes, then freeze for 5 minutes.

Assembly

Spread jam to within a ¼-inch of the sides of the crust. Starting around the outside edge, gently dollop frangipane onto jam, carefully spreading to prevent stirring up the jam. Cover jam completely.

Bake until the filling is lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 35 to 40 minutes; keep an eye on the colour of the crust. Tent with foil in the last 10 to 15 minutes if the crust is darkening too quickly.

Let cool completely. To cool quickly, place in freezer for 10 minutes.

Icing

Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl. Stir in almond extract and water.

Transfer about 3 tablespoons of icing mixture into a separate bowl and colour with desired shade of red. Spoon into a paper cone or a piping bag fitted with a small writing tip.

Spoon the white icing evenly over the tart. Pipe parallel lines of coloured icing over the white icing. Drag a toothpick through the lines to create a feathered effect.