Saturday 12 May 2012

Mini Bakewell Tarts

These bite-sized delights combine crisp pastry, raspberry jam and a light almond sponge. Topped with icing and a glace cherry, they're perfect with a cup of tea anytime.


This pastry recipe for mince pies is my favourite - it makes a lovely crisp, buttery pastry. As I was making mini tarts I made a smaller quantity and used milk to bind so I could roll it out. Here's my recipe. It makes 36.

Moreish Mini Bakewells
Pastry:
100g cold butter, diced
180g plain flour
40g caster sugar
splash of milk to bind
Filling:
jam of your choice - I used raspberry
50g unsalted butter
50g caster sugar
1 egg
30g ground almonds
30g self raising flour
Topping:
250g icing sugar
18 glace cherries


1. Make your pastry: rub the flour into the butter until you have a breadcrumb like mixture, then stir through the sugar. Add a small splash of milk to bring the mixture together - go carefully, if it gets too wet add a touch more flour. Wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge for 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile make your almondy sponge: beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and ground almonds, then stir in the self raising flour.
3. Preheat oven to 190°C that's 170°C for fan ovens.
4. Now take a third of the chilled pastry. It can be quite difficult to handle once rolled out so I recommend working with a small amount at a time. On a floured surface roll the pastry to around 4-5mm thickness. Using a 5cm round cutter, cut out 12 circles to line your mini muffin tin - be super careful when handling your pastry, it will be quite delicate. Repeat with the remaining dough.
5. Fill each of the pastry cases with around half a teaspoon of jam, then spoon a heaped teaspoon of sponge mixture on top. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 12-15 minutes.
6. Once they've cooled, put the icing sugar in a bowl and add small amounts of cold water until you have icing with a thick consistency. Cut your cherries in half. Spread a teaspoon of icing on top of each tart, and before it sets finish with half a cherry.
7. Brew a nice cup of tea and enjoy.

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