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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Assorted Bakewell Tartelettes



Summer's arrived and so has the busy social calender. 
June has been quite a busy month... Birthday parties, baby showers and just entertaining friends and family. It left me so little time that I barely had time to finish the challenge. 

When I first read the Bakewell Tart (um) Pudding challenge, I was wondering if I would have enough time to finish all the different steps... Sounded complicated just while reading it. But when I finally got down to it, the entire thing was done in a couple of hours.


I halved the recipe and baked individual "tarts" in cupcake/muffin molds. I filled two with blackberry preserves, two with strawberry jam and two with nutella. 

I think everyone loved it indeed!  



The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Assorted Bakewell Tartelettes

Sweet shortcrust pastry:
4 oz all purpose flour
0.5 oz sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 oz unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
1 egg yolks
1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)
1 Tbsp cold water


Frangipane:
2.25 oz unsalted butter, softened
2.25 oz icing sugar
1.5 eggs
1/4 tsp almond extract
2.25 oz ground almonds (or other nut of your choice)
0.5 oz all purpose flour

Blackberry preserves, strawberry jam and nutella

Prepare the dough:
Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.
Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Prepare the frangipane:
Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Assemble the tartelettes:
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pans, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Place the tarts on a baking sheet line with parchment paper and chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your Bakwells are so high and poofy they look like muffin tops, and they ar gorgeous! I didn't get to read your full post because I can't find my 'occasional use' glasses, and my eyes are blurry today, but great job and yum!

Anna said...

Great little tarts. I love the fact that you were very generous with the jam :) they look delicious!

Candice said...

I love how cute your tarts are!

Tina said...

I love the bite sized tarts. I bet the nutella ones were sinful!

Helene said...

Great job on the challenge! I love how cute the minis turned out!

Dragon said...

Your little tarts are gorgeous! Great job on this month's challenge.

ice tea: sugar high said...

Those bakewell tarts are picture perfect. Well done