Blackberry Bakewell Tart

There are still blackberries to be found in some places. I even spotted a few late ones near me the other day but to all intents and purposes they are finished for the year where I live. So the blackberries for these mini bakewells, which I wanted to make to take to my brother’s the other weekend, were hard to come by but definitely worth the effort. I do have some in the freezer but am saving them for now…

I am incredibly lucky and can now walk into Windsor Great Park from my house so often run or walk there. You have to go quite a long way into the park from the entrance I use to find blackberry bushes but I know where to find them. I must have walked about four miles and managed to gather approximately 150g of blackberries. Luckily I was really out for a walk and a few blackberries rather than the other way round.

Before I left I made my favourite spelt pastry and put it in the fridge to chill. Ideally you need blackberry jam for these bakewells but I used a mixed berry jam. All last year’s blackberry jam has been eaten and I only had jam that I had made a few weeks previously with a bag of blackberries I found in the freezer when I moved, along with some blueberries and strawberries that didn’t look like they were going to make it. I haven’t picked enough blackberries this year to make jam which is shocking. Partly because I prioritised and have a bottle of blackberry vodka on the go instead. I also have a tendency to put fruit in the freezer and think I will keep it to make crumbles through the winter. And then I forget to use it. So although I am planning to be more disciplined this year I may well be making jam with them next year instead…

I took these bakewells to my brother’s as I thought they would be as good with a cup of tea in the afternoon as a dessert in the evening so we could eat them whenever it suited. In the end we had them with cup of tea, which was lucky as dinner was an incredibly delicious Thai meal cooked by my brother’s girlfriend, Alex. We definitely didn’t need dessert.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 recipe quantity spelt pastry

A few tablespoons of blackberry jam

100g butter

100g sugar

1 egg

100g ground almonds

Approx 150g blackberries

25g flaked almonds

Method

Make your pastry and allow to chill if necessary.

Set the oven to 180ºC.

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and cut out discs large enough to line a 12 hole muffin tin. I chose to use a cutter that was shallower than the muffin tin so that the bakewells were not too deep.

Spread a small amount of jam in the base of the pastry cases:

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.

Add the egg and beat well.

Fold in the ground almonds.

Divide the mixture among the pastry cases and add an equal amount of blackberries to each tart. Push them down slightly into the mixture:

Ready to bake

Scatter over the flaked almonds. I was so sure I had flaked almonds I didn’t even check before I started and it turned out that I didn’t have any after all, which is why they are missing.

Bake for around 15-20 minutes or until well browned and quite firm to the touch.

Allow to cool for a little while in the tin before removing and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack (if you are not going to eat them warm).

Mini blackberry bakewells

We found ripe blackberries at my brother’s so even managed to come home with a small stash. Definitely enough for some more bakewells…

Categories: Baking, Desserts, Foraging, Fruit, Jam making and Preserves, Pastry, Recipes

Tags: almonds, autumn, baking, blackberries, dessert, foraging, fruit, ground almonds, hedgerow, jam, pastry, recipe, seasonal cooking, spelt flour