So the 11th August was National Bakewell Tart Day and in celebration of this I have baked a tart following the Bakewell, Derbyshire website recipe.
I have to admit that when reading this recipe I had doubts about how well the end result would turn out. For example, there is no blind baking of the pastry case (which I've always done before) and there are no ground almonds (you use semolina instead)!
As the recipe was from the home of the original Bakewell Tart, I decided to follow the recipe and see what happened (although I didn't put a pastry lattice on the top, I just put on a few handfuls of flaked almonds instead).
I was pleasantly surprised. The final tart was very good. You could not tell that there were no ground almonds and there was no 'soggy bottom'. The use of semolina is much more cost effective and didn't appear to be detrimental to the flavour.
The only criticism that the tart got, was that there was "not enough jam!" I do agree that 2 tablespoons of jam was not enough, I would probably go for at least double that, if not a little more.
** NEXT MONTH**
So September sees the official start of Autumn.
With that in mind I am thinking about doing some baking with autumn fruits.
Firstly, there is a recipe on the NFWI website for "Pear and Ginger Flapjacks". Click here.
Alternatively, the Dormans Evening WI has a recipe on their website for "Christine's Caramel Apple or Pear Cake". Click here.
As always I will try out at least one of these recipes and let you know how I get on. Please join in with me and send me some pics if you bake anything yourself.