When the amazing Mary Berry left the Great British Bake Off, I was incredibly heartbroken. The show just was not the same without her 💔 In her honour, I like to occasionally make a Bakewell Tart. This is a bake that was one of Mary B’s technical challenges ❤️

From past experience, I would advise against making pastry during the summer months (unless it is unseasonably cool). Pastry likes the cold – cold hands, cold water, cold utensils. When the kitchen is too warm, the pastry struggles to come together, resulting in a lot of cracked and broken pastry and a very stressed baker. If you really need to make pastry during warm weather, set your alarm for early in the morning and get busy in the kitchen before the sun starts to give off heat.

For convenience, use a shop bought jam in place of making your own.

Hope you enjoy!

Amy x

For the jam
130g raspberries
130g granulated sugar
1 tbsp cornflour

For the base:
225g plain flour
150g butter, chilled
4 tsp icing sugar
1 egg

For the filling
150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
1 egg
150g ground almonds
1 tsp almond essence
3 tbsp milk

Method
For the jam, put the blackberries in a small, deep-sided saucepan and crush them using a fork. Add the sugar and bring to the boil over a low heat until the sugar has melted. Increase the heat and boil for 4 minutes. Using some of the juice, make a paste with the cornflour and mix into the boiling jam. Remove from the heat and carefully pour into a shallow container. Leave to cool and set.

For the pastry, rub together the flour and butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the icing sugar. Add the egg, mixing to form soft dough. Line a 9″ fluted tin with the dough and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Once the pastry has chilled, blind bake for 20 mins.

For the filling, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg folded by the remaining ingredients.

Once the pastry case has blind baked, tip in the raspberry jam and spread to the edges. Top with the almond filling and bake for 35 mins.