Gluten Free Bakewell Tarts

SIMPLE RECIPE for gluten free bakewell tarts: Flaky pastry, a thick layer of jam, light almond sponge and a cherry on top too obviously!!

Prep Time20

Cook Time25

Servings: 12 tarts

Course: baking, Dessert

Ingredients

1 x 400 g pack Genius gluten free shortcrust pastry - or make your own version!
12 tsp jam (around 70 grams) - its your choice which flavour to use - I like strawberry!
140 grams caster sugar
140 grams spread/butter + a tiny bit extra for greasing - I use Flora Original (in a tub)
140 grams ground almonds - you'll find these with all of the nuts in any major supermarket
200 grams icing sugar
6 glace cherries
2 eggs

Take the pastry out of the freezer and place into the fridge 24hrs before you'd like to use it to defrost. If you're feeling impatient, break up the frozen block of pastry into 6 pieces and leave on the side for 2 hours to defrost.
Need the ball of pastry until it becomes soft and pliable.
>I find its best to do this in 6 separate pieces otherwise it makes your hands hurt!
Roll into a thin sheets - the thinner the better but the absolute maximum is the thickness of a £1 coin.

Pre-heat the oven to 175oC.
Cut out 12 circles from the pastry sheets.
>There's a tip for knowing what size of circles to cut in the blog post above
>If you haven't got any circular cutters, you can cut a circle out of a piece of paper and draw around it with a knife.
Grease your muffin/cupcake tray with butter
>Easiest way to do this: rip off a small square of baking paper. Dip it around your tub of butter and then wipe the baking paper over the holes in baking tray.
Take 1 of the pastry circles. Place into the cupcake tray and carefully press the insides against the baking tray, to make sure it properly forms the shape.
>Don't worry if you tear the pastry, just use your fingers to mould it back together again! Its like blue tack - you can be quite heavy handed with it.
>If you don't push it right to the bottom of the baking tray and around the edges, there won't be as much room for that yummy filling!!
Take a fork and gently make holes in the bottom of the pastry case and then a couple at the sides.
>This is to prevent the pastry from puffing up too much and creating bubbles. It also means you haven't got to faff around with baking beads/blind baking etc!
Repeat for all of the pastry cases and then place into the oven for 10 mins.

Whilst that is in the oven, whisk the butter and sugar until fully incorporated.
>Everyone has a tendency to under whisk at this stage. Make sure you're whisking for at least 3 mins, until the butter has gone light and fluffy.
Add the two eggs and whisk in at a low speed.
>Don't worry if the mix curdles slightly... the next step will sort that out!
Add the ground almonds and whisk until just incorporated.
>Make sure you scrape around the outsides and to the bottom of the bowl to get everything mixed together evenly
>It'll look something like this picture - ie. slightly grainy cake mix! Sorry about the quality of the pic... had to steal it from a video so its a funny angle!!

Once the 10 mins is up, remove your pastry cases from the oven. Add 1 level tsp of jam to the bottom of each. Spread it around so there is an even coating on the base.
>Feel free to add more jam, but just know it might rise a little through the cake mix and you won't get the perfect line between jam and sponge when you cut into it.
Add 1 heaped tbsp of the cake mix on top of each.
>The mix will not rise dramatically, so you can fill each of your cases to the top.
Return the bakewells to the oven for 15-18 mins, or until just browning and springy to touch, but not wet looking. You'll know exactly what I mean when you're doing it!
>They'll look something like this!
Remove the bakewells from the oven and allow them to cool completely before heading to the next step...
Mix the icing sugar with a tiny, tiny amount of water.
Add a spoonful of icing to each bakewell. Chop the cherries into halves and add to the tops.
Eat!!!