Blackberry Bakewell tart

Well Autumn season is well and truly in full swing as our conker haul bears witness to. And we finally got the chance to go blackberry picking too. This is on our autumn bucket list each year but we hadn't got around to actually doing it for years!

I've also been craving a Cherry Bakewell tart for the past few days, so I decided to combine the two things, blackberries and Bakewell tart, and make a Blackberry Bakewell tart. 

It is one of those recipes that I kind of made up as I went along so I don't have exact quantities for the blackberries I'm afraid. We didn't have a huge quantity so at a very rough guess I'd say 300g - 400g of blackberries. 

Ingredients for the pastry:

300g plain flour

30g sugar

125g butter

1 egg

A splash of milk

Ingredients for the blackberry 'jam':

Fresh blackberries (see note above about quantities!)

A splash of Madeira

Some sugar - around 2-3 tablespoons I would guess. 

Ingredients for the filling: 

100g ground almonds

2 eggs

100g sugar

100g butter

15g plain flour

Zest of a lemon

A generous handful of flaked almonds

Icing sugar and water to decorate if desired.

Method:

1. First make the pastry. I used my food processor to blitz together the flour and butter, then added in the sugar, egg and milk until it started to from a dough. 

2. On a floured surface bring the dough together and knead it a little so that you can roll it big enough for a 24cm tart tin. (The pastry quantities are a little more than you will need for this size tin, so we've kept the spare bit in the fridge to make a couple of mini jam tarts, or similar, tomorrow. 

3. Carefully place your rolled out pastry into your tart tin and prick gently with a fork. Then place in the fridge to chill. I read somewhere that it should be left to chill for an hour, but I'm nowhere near patient enough for that, so I just let it chill long enough for me to get started on making my blackberry jam. 

4. Wash the blackberries well. Then simmer on the hob with the sugar, Madeira and a few tablespoons of water. You may need to add a little more water as you go. Keep it simmering until the blackberries start to go mushy and the water reduces. Then push through a sieve to remove all the seeds to make a smooth 'jam'. I have called it a 'jam' but as I don't have a clue how to make jam properly I use this in the loosest way. It is essentially a thick sugary blackberry liquid to spread over the base of your pastry tart. 

5. Pop a sheet of baking paper into your chilled pastry case and fill with baking beans (or dried rice, lentils, mung beans will do the trick too). Blind bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 200C. Then remove the baking beans and baking parchment, reduce oven temperature to 180C and bake for a further 5 minutes. 

6. Whilst the pastry case is cooking, you can make your filling. I used a mixer with a beater attachment but you can mix by hand. Start by beating together the sugar and butter. 

7. Then add in the ground almonds and eggs. 

8. Finally add in the lemon zest and flour. 

9. Now it's time to assemble your blackberry Bakewell tart. Start by spreading the jam across the base of the pastry case (don't go right to the edges as I did or it will bleed through the filling). Next spread your filling on top of the jam. Finally generously sprinkle your tart with flaked almonds. 

10. Bake in the oven at 180C for 20 minutes then allow to cool. 

11. Once it is cool you can mix together a little icing using icing sugar and water to drizzle on top. Alternatively you could dust with a little icing sugar. 

I was so pleased with how this turned out and it's a great way of using those autumn blackberries hence blogging about it so I don't forget the recipe!

If you're good at making pastry tarts then you might want to tidy the edges of the tart up but my kids love all the extra pastry bits around the edges so I left it on there as I didn't want to risk the whole thing falling apart!

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