Cranberry Bakewells

I know that Bakewell Tarts traditionally have a jam filling but I think they work really well with compotes and curds too.  This tart is a great one to make at Christmas time as cranberries are so readily available in the supermarkets.  I’ve used a simple compote for the one below but you can also make it with Cranberry Curd in the base.

You’ll need

For the pastry

• 200g plain flour
• 100g cold unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp iced cold water
• 1 medium egg

For the compote

• 150g cranberries
• 2 large sticks of cinnamon
• 1 star anise
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 200 ml water

For the frangipane

• 112g caster sugar
• 112g soft unsalted butter
• 85g ground almonds
• 25g plain flour
• 2 large eggs
• Handful of flaked almonds to decorate

To make it

1. First make the pastry but blitzing the flour, icing sugar, cinnamon and butter in a food processor until it’s like fine breadcrumbs.
2. Beat the egg with the milk, lemon juice and water and then pour this slowly into the food processor while it’s running.  You might not need all of this liquid to form a dough ball.
3. Flour your work surface and then take the dough ball out of the processor and knead it lightly into a ball shape.
4. Wrap the dough ball in cling film and pop it in the fridge for about half an hour at least.
5. In the meantime, make the cranberry compote but putting all the compote ingredients except the vanilla essence into a heavy bottomed saucepan and cooking them gently with the lid on until the cranberries have melted. You’ll get some really lovely smells in your house at this point!
6. Once it’s all mushy and oozy, turn the heat off, fish out the cinnamon sticks and stir in the vanilla essence.
7. Leave it to cool and put the oven on to 180C ready for your pastry baking.
8. Grease you pastry tin or tins and set them aside.
9. Flour your work surface and roll your pastry out til it’s a few millimetres thick.  (As the wonderful Merry Berry demonstrated on the Great British Bake Off, if you do this over your loose bottomed pastry tin base, it makes it easier to see how much you need to roll).
10. Line the pastry tin with the pastry.  If you are using lots of little tins, I find it easier to cut the dough up into balls and then roll out pastry for each one rather than rolling out a large piece and then trying to make the circles all fit out of it!
11. Pop the pastry filled tins into the freezer while you clean away everything – about 15 minutes max.
12. Take them out of the freezer, prick the bases with a fork and then line with greaseproof paper and then fill with baking beads, beans or rice to weigh down.
13. Bake for about 15- 20 minutes.
14. Take it/them out of the oven, remove all the baking beans and then pop back into the oven for another 8 minutes. I find that 5 minutes is too short and 10 is too long!
15. Leave the pastry to cool while you make the frangipane.
16. Mix together the plain flour and ground almonds and set aside.
17. Beat the caster sugar and butter together – I do this in the KitchenAid.
18. Once it’s light a fluffy, add an egg and a half of the flour/ground almond mix.
19. Beat til this is well combined and then add the other egg and remaining flour/ground almond mix.
20. Beat for a couple more minutes til it is all well combined.
21. Now you can line your pastry with a layer of the lovely cranberry compote and then spoon over the frangipane til it’s just to the top of the pastry.  Don’t overfill with frangipane otherwise it’ll leak over the sides and make the tart difficult to get out of the tin(s).
22. Sprinkle over the flaked almonds and then bake for about 20-30 minutes.  If your using the large single tin you’ll need about 30 minutes and if you’re using the assortment of different sized tins, you’ll need between 20 and 30 minutes.  The frangipane should be golden brown and the almonds lightly toasted.

This recipe works just as well with any soft fruit compote.  Or your can use Cranberry Curd, Blackberry Curd, Lemon Curd……or just plop in some fresh fruit on top of the frangipane mixture.  Enjoy x