Fig on top, Blackberry on bottom - nice crisp crust!

I am excited to reveal my first ever Daring Bakers Challenge! The fantastic June challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart…er…pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England. It is a combination of a sweet almond-flavored shortcrust pastry, frangipane and jam.

No I wasn’t drinking when I drizzled. Why do you ask?

Great choice girls!  I personally love tarts, particularly tartlets and have been wanting to make a homemade jam for quite some time, in fact it’s on  it was on my 100 list (more on that another time).  And while I lust over the beautiful long and narrow fluted tart pans that many of my fellow participants are using (Santa, are you listening?) I used my 4″ tartlet tins.

Right out of the oven

The recipe follows and the results were surprisingly good, even for a disaster.  What?  Yes a disaster, wait…let me explain.  Sure the jam is delicious.   First I thought the frangipane was way too sweet, but when all together it was mellow and not to overpowering.  The crust was crisp and overall I think my BW was a well balanced tart that I would make again, albiet with various flavor combos.  But my photog session?  Oh Lord help me!  I can definitely add “Foodstylist of the Year” to the titles I will not be recieving any time soon.  My food stylist (me) dropped the tarts on the patio outside during the shoot!  WTF?  She’s so fired.  They landed face down on their cute little (unperfect)chocolate drizzles.  But all was not lost.  As it turns out the BW is super sturdy!  As you can see by the photos they didn’t even crack or break!  And like any good multi-tasking cook/maid/mother/wife/food stylist/photographer/blah-blah-blah, I picked them up, dusted them off and served them to my family anyway (shh, I didn’t tell them-hee hee)!  They were very yummy.  Taylor was the only one who would not eat them, but at 4 she is now going thru her experimental “I’m a vegetarian” stage (um, yeah, you read that right), which has now manifested into a full blown case of picky-eater syndrome.  Oh, so much personality in one little body!

Are you freakin kidding me?
Actually, all was fine til I sat in the chocolate!

Hey look Mom, they didn’t break!
Nevermind the chocolate is all screwed up

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

• 8oz All Purpose Flour
• 1 oz Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 4 oz Unsalted Butter, Cold (or frozen)
• 2 Egg Yolks
• 1/2 tsp Almond Extract (optional)
• 1-2 Tbl Cold Water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt.  Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater.  Using your finger tips, only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.  Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture.  Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap with cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Frangipane

• 4.5 oz Unsalted Butter, softened
• 4.5 oz Icing Sugar (confectioners sugar)
• 3 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp Almond Extract
• 4.5 oz Ground Almonds (almond meal)
• 1 oz All Purpose Flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy.  Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  The batter may appear to curdle.  Don’t panic.  Really, it will be fine.  After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again.  With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour,  Mix well.  The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow color.

 Ahh, my beautiful jam. Oh yeah and I found the light!

Blackberry Vanilla Jam by Blondie inspired by Certo

• 3 1/2 cups Blackberries
• 6 1/4 cups Sugar
• 1 pouch Certo Liquid Pectin
• 1 Vanilla Bean

Crush the blackberries, 1 cup at a time, and press pulp thru a sieve to remove the seeds (optional, I did not).  In a 6 to 8 quart saucepan, combine fruit, sugar and a split vanilla bean.  Bring mixture to a full rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly.  Stir in pectin quickly.  Return to a full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Skim of any foam with a metal spoon.  Ladle into prepared jars and process for 10 minutes in a water bath.

Hello Beautiful!
Thank goodness for the three second rule. Right?

Assembling the tart

Place chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface.  If it is overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out.  Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 1/4″ thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the center and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter of a turn after each roll.  When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer to the tart pan, press in a trim excess dough.  Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits.  Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400d.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base.  Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart.  Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes.  Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish.  Remove from the oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the oven for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy looking.  Remove from the oven and cool on the counter.  Serve warm with creme fraiche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Blondies Notes

• The shortcrust can all be made quickly and efficiently in the food processor, but the challenge encouraged us to make the shortcrust by hand (as I did)
• The private members forum talked about blindbaking the shortcrust to prevent a soggy final result, I did not blind bake.
• I had made almond shortcrust tartlets (with 1″ tins) a few months ago and filled them with melted chocolate and lime curd (yummy!).  So I planned on smearing melting dark chocolate on some of the tartlets (then jam, then frangipane), but I got sidetracked by the swimming pool and well, I drizzled to serve…
• Okay, Next time I will also make a lemon curd and substituted it for the jam (with the chocolate of course!)
• With the left over dough I made little cookies.  I rolled out the dough and used my new fluted cookie/biscuit cutters to make little 1″ circles and put a touch of jam on top.  Then I cooked them for 10 minutes at 400d.  Chandler loved them!  Although my blackberry jam has not fully set yet so it ran all over the place!
• I used a fig jam in one of the tarts and on some of the cookies.  It is a Mission Fig Jam that I purchased at Wingshadow Hacienda when we went on our ranch tour on Monday. 
• You definitely have to like almonds to like this tart.  For those who are unfamiliar with frangipane (as I was) I would describe it as a sponge of sorts, actually the first thought that came to my mind was that it was like an almond flavored madeline (but grittier from the almond meal).

Try it, you might like it…

~Blondie