Bakewell Tart Traybake

What do you do when you have a large surplus of shortcrust pastry in the freezer?  Devise sweet ways of using it of course.

We’ve been making a lot of things with this pastry, both savoury and sweet, mainly quiches, but this is one of my favourites and just so easy to make.   

The only thing you’re making from scratch really is the almond sponge as both pastry and jam are ready made.  I did freshly grind the almonds though, instead of using pre ground almonds from a packet.  I think it gives a more crumbly texture to the cake, as freshly ground almonds aren't as fine as those from a packet.  Well, mines aren't anyway.

I went for this recipe because I love this combination of raspberry jam and almond sponge.  Do you know those Raspberry and Almond Bake slices you get in Costas?  Well that is what I order every time I nip in for some latte and that was the taste that I wanted to achieve here too.

I think I managed to achieve it with this flavour combination although the texture of the Costas treat is a lot denser than this.  You don’t have to use raspberry jam for a Bakewell, any flavour is acceptable so just choose what you like.   

Did I mention this is so easy to do?  Just roll out your pastry until it fits into a 30cm by 40 cm baking tray.  Spread over the jam, then the sponge mixture and bake.   

The hardest part of the whole recipe is judging the baking time – if you take out the bake too early you might get a raw pastry bottom, but if you take it out too late you might over bake the cake.  I found about 30 minutes in the oven at 180C was just enough to bake all the pastry and not dry out the cake.

I do think that the addition of almond essence really helps give this sponge an almond kick though, so try to incorporate that if you have some lying around.  Also, I didn’t use sweet shortcrust pastry, just the normal unsweetened kind and I loved the way the plain pastry tasted against the sweet jam and sponge.

Bakewell Tart Traybake (adapted from here)

·         500g shortcrust pastry

·         250g raspberry jam (I used half a 454g jar but you can use more to create a thicker layer of jam)

·         200g butter, softened

·         200 caster sugar

·         ¼ tsp almond essence  

·         4 eggs

·         100g plain flour

·         1 tsp baking powder

·         100g freshly ground almonds

Preheat the oven to 180C, prepare a 30cm x 40cm baking tray.

Roll out the pastry until it just fits into the baking tray – it doesn’t have to be exact but try to make it bigger rather than smaller so that you can fit it up the sides.

Beat the butter, sugar and almond essence together until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Combine the flour, baking powder and ground almonds together and fold these into the butter mixture.

Spread the jam over the pastry, spreading it as evenly as possible with the back of a teaspoon.

Spread the almond sponge mixture over the jam layer trying to cover it as much as possible so that it doesn’t show.

Bake for about 30 minutes.  Allow to cool in tin before slicing.

Clementine and Clove Biscuits

I’ve been making biscuits a lot lately, which is pretty unusual since I’m very much a cake person.  I made one of the easiest biscuits ever on Christmas Day under orders from my sister who was making the dinner and needed an extra pair of hands to make the biscuits.

Her idea was very simple but very effective.  She had the idea to cut out biscuits from a roll of shop bought sweet shortcrust pastry that had been lying in the fridge for a while.  She then made me give each one a wash with some egg white and sprinkle them with caster sugar and top with flaked almonds.  I had the idea of topping some with cinnamon and Clementine zest instead of the flaked almonds. 

These turned out very tasty and are great to make if you are in a hurry.  Sorry I didn’t take any pictures, but I was making these in an intense rush as I didn’t want to miss the start of the Christmas Dr Who episode which is the highlight of Christmas TV for me.

Anyway, my biscuit making adventures didn’t stop there and I tried cut-out sugar biscuits for the seventh time – and they still spread in the oven!  I don’t know how to get them to keep their shape, I’ve even tried freezing them before placing them in the oven but they still spread.  I’ll keep trying though as, although they look weird after spreading, they still taste great.

Another recipe I tried were these Clementine and Clove biscuits.  This recipe is heavily adapted from the Hairy Bikers on the BBC who made these into Lemon and Cardamom Stamp Cookies.  I modified the recipe by replacing the citrus and spice, using freshly ground almonds and adding spelt flour to the recipe.  We have so many Clementines in the house right now that need to be used up that I’ve been devising ways to do so.  Prepare for more Clementine recipes coming soon!

My natural inclination was to pair these with cinnamon (as it is with all things) but for some reason I had cloves stuck in my head.  It’s odd as I didn’t even have any ground cloves at home and had to go buy some which is not how I usually bake – it’s almost always with things I already have to hand.  But the desire for this flavour combination was persisting in my head so I went with it.

I’m glad I did as they impart something different and unique compared to my usual favourite spice, cinnamon.  They really were lovely, just slightly sweet, slightly crumbly and completely moreish.  It’s funny but no one could quite guess what it was.  One person tasted and exclaimed ‘hmm these are soo good.  They’re so coconutty!’.  There’s no coconut in these at all.  Another person remarked ‘wow they’re so gingery’.  There’s also no ginger in these at all. 

Everyone loved them though, even if they couldn’t quite place the spice (which is used abundantly in our savoury dishes but was a first in a sweet).  I think I’ve gotten them too used to cinnamon in my sweet concoctions.  

I'm surprised they didn't figure out it had almonds as that is what gave these such a tender, crumbly, melt in the mouth texture.

I so so sooo wanted to dip these into melted chocolate – just a half dip so they would be covered in a dark chocolate on one half of the biscuit.  Only they wouldn’t let me.  I think I’ve mentioned that my family aren’t too overly keen on sweet icings and toppings or too many ‘frills’.  They much rather prefer a plain well made un-iced sponge cake to a frosted cupcake or layer cake.  I just thought melted dark chocolate would have looked nice and would have gone very well with the flavours...

Clementine and Clove Biscuits

·         225g butter, softened

·         150g granulated sugar

·         3 clementines, zest only

·         75g freshly ground almonds

·         75g spelt flour

·         200g plain flour

·         1 level tsp ground cloves

Preheat oven to 180C and line two baking trays with either greaseproof paper or foil.  Lightly spray the lined trays with a little oil.

Whisk the butter, sugar and zest in a large bowl until light and fluffy.

Combine together the dry ingredients; almonds, flours and cloves.  Add these to the butter mix and bring together into a dough.

Divide the dough in half, then make each half into 12 balls by rolling between your palms.  You should have 24 balls.

Place 12 balls on each baking tray.  You can either flatten them down with a cookie stamp if you have one or with the back of a flat-bottom glass like I did.  Don’t put too much pressure on them – you don’t want to squish them completely flat.

Bake for about 15 minutes until the edges are golden.

Dip them in chocolate please.