Bakewell Tart - Great British Bake Off (#GBBOBloggers2015)

In a break from tradition, I have controversially not made the technical bake this week! I'm afraid I wasn't prepared to pay £6 for the mastic and then some more money for the mahlepi, since I very much doubt they will be required for anything else I would want to bake (pine disinfectant isn't a flavour I am fond of)

I was also (controversially) rather unimpressed with the technical this week - there was no testing of skill, just a really random item to make, with no interesting techniques, just weird ingredients.

Anyway, I decided to make the Signature Bake instead - a frangipane tart. The most well-known of the frangipane tarts, is of course, the Bakewell Tart. I'm a big fan of Bakewells, and had never made one, so it was a perfect opportunity.

The recipe is from "Practical Cookery," which is technically a text book for professional cookery that my dear grandmother gave me before I went off to university - and it has stood me in much better stead than all of the "student cookbooks" I had.

Ingredients
Sugar Pastry:
1 egg
50g sugar
125g butter (softened)
200g flour
pinch of salt
1. Taking care not to over soften, cream the egg and sugar
2. Add the butter and mix for a few seconds
3. Gradually incorporate the sieved flour and salt
4. Mix lightly until smooth.
5. Allow to rest in a cool place (ie the fridge) before using.
Tart:
50g raspberry jam (I actually used homemade 'hedgerow' jelly)
100g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
80g ground almonds
30g flour
1/2 tsp almond essence
50g apricot glaze
35g icing sugar
1. Line a flan ring using three-quarters of the paste, rolled to 2mm thick.
2. Pierce the bottom with a fork and spread with the jam.
3. Cream the butter and sugar, gradually beat in the eggs. Mix in the almond essence, followed by the ground almonds and flour, mix lightly. Spread this over the jam.
4. Roll the remaining paste, cut into neat 1/2cm strips and arrange neatly criss-cross on the frangipane, trim off surplus paste.
5. Brush with eggwash.
6. Bake in a moderately hot oven (200-220C) for 30-40 minutes.
7. Brush with hot apricot glaze, then leave to cool.
8. When cooled brush over with very thin water icing.

I am entering this into #GBBOBloggers2015, which this week is being hosted by Stacey

I'm also entering this into #CookBlogShare, which is being hosted by Kirsty