Wolf's Den

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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.

Be forewarned- this is my longest Daring Bakers Challenge post yet. I lost count at 75 photos. Yeah.



Gathering of the cast of charactors. You see, I had several jars of local made jams and jelly in the cupboard. So I figured, what better way to try them! And I love almonds. Perfect match, I should think, almonds and cranberries, or wild black raspberries, or blackberries, or cherries, or homemade apple butter, or lemon curd or lime curd, or...

Yeah.

I got abit carried away. As you'll see.

And after the actual Challenge recipe, I included a Bakewell Tart Pudding made with almond paste instead of almond meal/flour.}:P It was the first one I really made, you see. But paste wasn't what the Challenge called for, so...





First up in my initial run of making a Bakewell Tart Pudding was the cherry one. Shh, don't tell Mark it was LITE Cherry pie filling. Really easy, I took cherry pie filling...



Spooned roughly half of it into my mini food processor. (Ok, so I ate some of it too. Sue me. You won't get much.) That thing has come in handy more times than I can count. Then...



Pulverized the crap out of it. After that, the bowl portion of the processor was stuck in the fridge while I made the shortbread crust and the frangipane.

The crust was a pain in my butt, I will say. I looked at everyone else's photos of THEIR crust in progress and MINE looks nothing like it. Hmph.



You start out by sifting the flour, sugar and salt together. Look! I got a real sifter! Just like my mom has! Whee! There's an actual kitchen gadgets store downtown, and I swear, I need to win the Lotto, as there's so much stuff there I want! Seriously, I walk in and it's, 'I want this! I want that! Oh hey look! They have this!' Yeah. It's bad.





Next you take a stick of FROZEN unsalted butter and you GRATE IT. Yes, seriously. The directions said to grate the butter. I learned real quick that the shredding blade on my full size food processor does a much faster job than me and it's best to have the butter grated BEFORE you actually need it. Yeah. This was a pain in the rear.

After you grate the butter, you work it into the sifted flour mix, supposedly using just your finger tips. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You see my hand? Yeah, ok, fingertips. Right. You want a mix that resembles bread crumbs. Well, I got that. But that's where the resemblence ends, trust me.




Next you take your eggs and almond extract, lightly (there's that word again. I swear, they're going to drive me batty with the 'lightly beat' in every recipe) beat them together. I still haven't quite figured out what exactly entails lightly beaten.



Then you dump-er, pour the egg mix into the butter bread crumb mix. I don't know if it'd have made a difference if I made a well or not, honestly. This was the last time I made the crust by hand. The rest? I used the food processor. YES I CHEATED. HA.




Now, you're supposed to quickly mix the eggs into the flour mix. With your hand. I tried. Really, I did. My hand was covered with dough. I ended up scraping it off and using a spatula instead. Supposedly, you dribble in water at this point. Strangely, even though I've followed the directions exactly, which is odd for me, I didn't need to use water. As you can see, it was plenty sticky and cohesive on it's own.

After it's mixed, you turn it out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Well, stupid me forgot to get plastic wrap. (I still haven't remembered to get any. D'oh.) So I floured up a sheet of tin foil instead. Hey, it worked. Then it got tossed in the fridge for an hour or so to stiffen back up. It needed it. Seriously. And I needed a break. Heh. The grating of the butter did me in.

Anyway. Moving right along. We're moving, we're moving. Come along now, we have lots more to see...



The frangipane was up next. Unfortunately, I couldn't find actual almond meal/flour right away. So I bought whole roasted almonds and ground them up myself. Lots of us went this route, and after I DID find some almond meal/flour, and seeing the price- I can see why.



Creamed together the butter and sugar. Apparently it was supposed to be a 'primrose' color. I dunno... it looked abit more like a canary color to me.




Then I added the eggs, one at a time, waiting until they were blended in, scraping down the sides between each. Then came the almond extract. Yum. My kitchen smelled good for quite awhile.




After that, you add in the almonds. And the all purpose flour. Musn't forget that. I almost did.



I dunno... it looks abit runny to me. And it most certainly isn't primrose in color anymore, that's for sure. Tasted good though! }:P




Now, this was really the second batch I made. The first was with the almond paste, and that'll be at the end of this post. So, I made 'mini' Bakewell Tart Puddings, in a disposable muffin tin, in cherry, homemade apple butter (made by yours truly and no, there is no written recipe, sorry) and local made Wild Black Raspberry Jam that was divine.

And here also, begins the first of the Fail Tarts. Yeah.




After smooshing crust into each tin, and freezing it, I put about 1-1/2 tablespoons of jam/butter/filling in each, 2 per flavor. Spread it out to cover the bottom as best I could. Licked the spoon with the Wild Black Raspberry Jam on it clean as a whistle. Om Nom Nom.




Then I topped each with the frangipane, smoothing it over to completely cover each tart crust. It looked pretty at least.



Baked as per directions, plus a little longer as they seemed... too wiggly for my tastes. And it turned out that they needed it. Then I fought with the fool things to get them OUT of the tin. Never using a stupid disposable tin again. Hmph.




They plated beautifully, of course. And powdered sugar covers a multitude of sins. *nods sagely* Such as the crack in the top of one that promptly oozed jam. Yeah.

But then I had a problem. See, when I put them ON the plate, I knew where each flavor was. But then.. I turned the plate. And not just once, which would have been fine. I turned it three times. *headdesk* I now had no idea which was which. Whoops.



So I cut them all in half. And found out that they... don't look like they were supposed to. Argh. Mark took them to work, well, most of them. I ate a Wild Black Raspberry one, he ate an Apple Butter one. They tasted yummy even if they didn't look right. His boss loved them too. Her fav was the Wild Black Raspberry as well.

Fail Tarts numbers 1, 2 and 3. (I went by flavors in these.)

I put the rest of the frangipane in the fridge until the next day. When I used my food processor to grate butter and make more crust. Then I made 2 more Bakewell Tart Puddings. ALSO Fail Tarts.




First up was a lemon and lime curd one. I spread lemon curd over half the crust, and lime curd over the other half. Then I smoothed them together at the center to blend, and baked it as per directions. Yeah. Fail Tart number 4.




Now, thinking that the frangipane was abit runny, I added about 2 -3 more ounces of all purpose flour. This was the result. And it was the last of the cherry filling too. I created a monster with this one.



LOOK AT THAT! What the devil is that????? Yeah. We couldn't eat it. }:/ It was... too much of the top and not enough of anything else. Most of this got tossed out. Fail Tart number 5.

So, I was determined to make a Bakewell Tart Pudding as per the directions WITH actual almond meal/flour. Found some at the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-Op, at $16.55 a pound. Yikes!!!




Then, I found it at the Kroger right down the street, at $11.19 a pound. MUCH BETTER. Still YIKES, but not as bad.




Ok, creamed the butter and sugar. Added the eggs one at a time. Added the almond meal/flour, the almond extract, the all purpose flour...




Got the curdled looking, primrose color. Neat. Tastes great too.





Made more crust earlier, and froze it. Then I took the remaining Wild Black Raspberry Jam and covered the bottom with it. A nice, yummy layer.



Spent way too much time scraping out the jar, trying to get every last delicious bit of jam. Now it's gone, and I have to wait until October and the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival to get more. *sobs*




Spread the frangipane over the jam, which I'd stuck in the freezer until nearly solid as well. It's easier to spread the frangipane if the jam is rather solid. So definitely freeze first. You'll see what happens if you don't later. Just trust me- it's better if you freeze between adding the layers.



All baked! And it didn't leak! Yay! It even came out of the tart dish nicely too!!



Looks good, right? Mark thought so too. He's easily impressed though.



Me? Not so much. I wasn't happy with it. It didn't LOOK right to me. It looked too... custardy, for lack of better.



And the taste was ... off. Which was sad, as like I said, it was the last of the Wild Black Raspberry jam. *sobs* Mark ended up eating all but one piece. Yeah.

So, Fail Tart number 6.

Now, it's the night before the Reveal Date. I was DETERMINED to make a stupid Bakewell Tart Pudding that was SUCCESSFUL. So I made Bakewell Tart Pudding number 7 last night.



This one I used the Blackberry Jam.



Made the crust, made the frangipane, spread the jam. Looks yummy. I have high hopes for this one. I cooled it overnight and cut it this morning after coming back from breakfast with the InLaws.



I think I have achieved success.



So purty. It looks right.



THIS is how I imagined a Bakewell Tart Pudding to look. THIS is what took me 7 tries to achieve. *pats self on back* How's it taste? No idea. We're saving it for breakfast tomorrow. Mark's parents are coming her for breakfast, so THEY get to be my guinea pigs! Bwahahahahahahaha!

The Challenge: Bakewell Tart…er…pudding

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart
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 pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

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. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Jasmine’s notes:
• If you cannot have nuts, you can try substituting Victoria sponge for the frangipane. It's a pretty popular popular cake, so you shouldn't have any troubles finding one in one of your cookbooks or through a Google search. That said, our dear Natalie at Gluten a Go Go has sourced some recipes and linked to them in the related alt.db thread.
• You can use whichever jam you wish, but if you choose something with a lot of seeds, such as raspberry or blackberry, you should sieve them out.
• The jam quantity can be anywhere from 60ml (1/4 cup) to 250ml (1cup), depending upon how “damp” and strongly flavoured your preserves are. I made it with the lesser quantity of home made strawberry jam, while Annemarie made it with the greater quantity of cherry jam; we both had fabulous results. If in doubt, just split the difference and spread 150ml (2/3cup) on the crust.
Annemarie’s notes:
• The excess shortcrust can be rolled out and cut into cookie-shapes (heck, it’s pretty darned close to a shortbread dough).

Sweet shortcrust pastry
Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

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

Jasmine’s notes:
• I make this using vanilla salt and vanilla sugar.
• If you wish, you can substitute the seeds of one vanilla bean, one teaspoon of vanilla paste or one teaspoon of vanilla extract for the almond extract

Frangipane
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

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.

Annemarie’s notes:
• Add another five minutes or more if you're grinding your own almonds or if you're mixing by hand (Heaven help you).


And now... a Bakewell Tart Pudding made with almond paste-

Everything EXCEPT the frangipane is the same.

This is the almond paste frangipane recipe, courtesy of Audax Artifex-

• 7 to 8 oz almond paste (not marzipan or almond filling)
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Make filling:
Beat together almond paste, butter, sugar, and almond extract in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then mix in flour and salt.

Spread frangipane filling evenly in tart shell. Bake tart until frangipane is puffed and golden, about 1 1/4 hours.



This is what happens when you DON'T let the jam layer freeze or at least solidify abit before trying to add the frangipane. Yeah. See? Freeze between the layers!




I used the cherry pie filling on this one. Other than abit of burning on the crust, and the center pulling away from the sides, it was perfect. The burning was a result of getting distracted. *glares at Caena* Yeah.



But this...



THIS...



WAS DIVINE. Yum. OmNomNom. I nearly ate this entire one by myself.

I really like how they turn out with the almond paste, so honestly? I think I'll stick to THAT recipe. Heh.

It was fun though. Quite the learning experience and definitely something I'll make repeatedly.