Bakewell Tart is a quintessential British dessert. It has a lovely pastry crust and a rich, moist, frangipane filling. Usually there is a layer of raspberry, or other jam, between the two. But for this version I use mincemeat. Let me clarify, immediately, that there is no meat in mincemeat. Rather is is a combination of dried fruits and spiced, often infused with some distilled spirits. It is most commonly used around Christmas time to make mince pies.
But often, after Christmas, you might have leftover mincement. Indeed I had just such a jar, with an expiry date of before next Christmas. So I decided to make a Bakewell Tart and use the mincemeat instead of jam.
The recipe is quite simple, particularly if broken down into distinct stages. There are 4 main stages. Make the pastry, then blind bake it. Make the filling and then assemble the tart. Those are the four stages. Of course there is more to it, since the pastry needs to be chilled. In fact chilling twice is good since it allows the pastry to relax and reduces the shrinkage which often occurs.
The recipe works very well too, of course, using some jam or lemon curd or something similar, instead of mincemeat. So even if you don’t have mincemeat you can still have a wonderful dessert.
The tart is great warm or cold and served with custard, or cream or even ice-cream. It can also be eaten just as a snack, with a cup of tea or similar.
My Mincemeat Bakewell Tart
My tart baked very well indeed. I did almost have a disaster though. Checking the tart during baking I decided that I needed to cover the pastry crust to prevent it browning too much. As I was putting some aluminium foil around the rim I dropped it onto the tart, causing a small dent in the, still soft, top. But it was fine with just a little dent.
The tart baked very well indeed, browning nicely and setting firm but still retaining moisture.
I actually baked mine for 40 minutes and then left it to cool in the tart tin for 30 minutes before removing it and cooling on a rack.
I dusted a little icing sugar on the top, just for effect. Then I sliced it and enjoyed tasting the tart. It was simply wonderful, with a light, crisp pastry, the sweet fruitiness from the mincemeat and a lovely soft and moist frangipane.
Another very lovely tart is Lemon Tart – Tarte au Citron.
Mincemeat Bakewell Tart
Course: DessertsCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Medium8
servings2
hours30
minutes40
minutesDelicious Frangipane Tart with sweet mincemeat
Ingredients
- Pastry
225g(1 1/2 cups, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup) plain flour
113g(1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed
87g(7 tbsp)icing sugar
3 medium egg yolks(large in USA), beaten
pinch of salt
1 medium egg(large in USA), for brushing the pastry
- Filling
150g(1 1/2 cups) ground almonds
38g(1/4 cup, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup) plain flour
125g(1 stick + 1 tbsp) softened unsalted butter
125g(1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) caster sugar
2 medium eggs(large in USA)
2.5ml(1/2 tsp) almond extract
2g(1/2 tsp) baking powder
1/5(1/4 tsp) salt
15g(2 tbsp) flaked almonds
175g(7 tbsp) mincemeat, adjust to personal preference
Directions
- Place the flour, icing sugar, salt and cold butter into a food processor and pulse until it is like fine breadcrumbs
- Add most of the beaten egg yolks and pulse again until the mixture begins to clump, adding more egg yolk as necessary.
- Tip the mixture into a bowl and squeeze it with a hand to form a dough.
- Form the dough into a ball and then flatten it into a disc.
- Wrap the disc in plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for at least an hour.
- Place the chilled dough onto a floured work surface and roll it out to a thickness of about 5mm (1/4 inch), and about 32cm(13 inches) in diameter.
- Roll the dough onto your rolling pin and carefully place it into a 23cm(9 inch) tart tin.
- Ease the pastry down the sides of the tin and onto the base.
- Press the pastry against the fluted sides of the tin and trim the excess leaving the pastry just above the rim.
- Use a fork to prick all over the base of the pastry.
- Chill the pastry in the fridge for another hour.
- Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/375F.
- Beat the egg for brushing.
- Line the pastry with some parchment paper and then fill that with baking beans(or dried beans, rice or pasta).
- Bake the pastry for 15 minutes.
- Take the pastry out of the oven and remove the bakng beans and parchment paper.
- Brush the beaten egg all over the pastry and then bake it for a further 10 minutes, until the base is fully cooked(mine only took 8 minutes).
- Take the baked tart case out of the oven and set aside.
- Place the butter and sugar into a bowl and cream it together until light and fluffy.
- Add the almond extract and the eggs, one at a time, and beat to fully combine.
- Mix the baking powder and salt into the flour and then pour it all into the ground almonds and mix them together.
- Tip the dry mixture into the wet mixture and stir it until fully combined, then set aside.
- Spread the mincemeat over the base of the tart case.
- Spoon the almond mixture onto the mincemeat and carefully spread it to cover completely, and make it level all over.
- Sprinkle the flaked almonds onto the top.
- Bake the tart in the oven for 40 minutes, covering the edge of the pastry with aluminium foil it if seems to be browning too quickly.
- Remove the tart from the oven and leave it to cool for about 30 minutes, then remove it from the tart tin and leave it to cool, on a wire rack before serving.
Notes
- Adjust the amount of mincemeat to your personal preference. You can also use jams etc instead of the mincemeat.