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A little blog about food with recipes, reviews, commentary, and honesty.

I also offer event catering and private chef services; check out Earls Barton Eats! for more details.

Thursday 2 August 2012

Food Porn: Cherry Bakewell Squares

I really love food that looks jolly; forget Michelin-style presentation.

Take the cherry bakewell square: 


Doesn't it just make you smile? I think it's the shiny, patent cherry on top of the white icing; it reminds me of a clown's nose (Apologies to those terrified of clowns). 


I might even rename them 'Cheery Bakewells'. 

WARNING: This is not a nut-free recipe; it is truly packed to the gills with almonds. 

Ingredients to make one batch in a 20cm square tin: 

300g of shortcrust pastry; either ready-made or you can make your own using a gluten-free recipe like this.
1 jar of morello cherry jam
100g of ground almonds
100g of self-raising flour; for gluten-free substitute for GF self-raising flour
4 large eggs
200g of golden caster sugar
200g of unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp of French almond extract
200g of icing sugar
20 glacĂ© cherries
Cold water

Firstly line the baking tin with greaseproof paper, leaving an inch around the top to make it easier to lift out the cherry bakewell afterwards. Preheat the oven to 200c/180c fan. 

Roll out the pastry to around 1/4cm thick and cut it to the size of the tin; you can do this either by placing the tin on top of the pastry and trimming round it or making a template out of greaseproof paper. Then place the pastry in the bottom of the tin and press down gently round the sides. Spread the jam all over the pastry, making sure every bit is covered evenly. 

Beat together the sugar and butter in a large bowl until smooth, then beat in one egg at a time with 1 tbsp of the ground almonds. When you've beaten in all 4 eggs add the remaining almonds, the flour, and the almond extract and fold in with a spatula until the mixture is smooth and resembles a thick batter. Spoon the mixture over the jammy pastry and spread evenly with the spatula. Place in the oven for 35-40 minutes until the sponge is risen and golden brown. 

When the sponge is cooked, remove from the oven and set aside to cool in the tin. In a small bowl mix together the icing sugar with around 4 tbsps of cold water until it resembles a thick, gloopy paste; make sure there aren't any lumps of icing sugar! When the sponge is cooled spread the icing all over the top with a spatula, making sure that every bit of sponge is covered evenly and none of the sponge is showing through the icing. Place the glacĂ© cherries on top and evenly space them out to be in the middle of where you'll cut the squares later. Then put the entire cherry bakewell in the fridge for at least 2 hours for the icing to set. 

When the icing is set remove the cherry bakewell from the tin and cut into squares, then consume the joy!


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