Strawberry bakewell tart

Nadiya Hussain freshens up the traditional bakewell tart by adding fresh strawberries, with this light and delicious strawberry tart.

Despite being a master baker, she recommends using ready made shortcrust pastry, leaving us a bit more time in the garden this summer!

I didn’t feel the need to alter the original recipe at all. However my ready-made pastry came in a 375g block (not the 500g listed) which I found to be more than enough.

The tart did overflow a little in my 2.5cm deep tin so do use a deeper tin if you have one (perhaps that’s why she recommends extra pastry?). It’s lovely to see the contrast between the pastry shell and the golden mixture, but this was partly lost when this tester over-flowed. Still tasted just as good though!

Ingredients

• Flour for dusting
• 375-500g ready-made shortcrust pastry
• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 250g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 250g ground almonds, plus 2 tbsp extra
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 250g strawberries, hulled and quartered lengthways
• 50g flaked almonds
• Icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Grease a 24cm fluted, loose-bottom tart tin, ideally 3cm deep. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and put a baking tray in the oven.
2. Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll the pastry out into a thin circle, about 3mm thickness and big enough to cover the base and sides of the tin.
3. Lay the pastry in the tin and push down to ensure the base is flat and the pastry is into the fluted edges.
4. Trim the excess pastry from the edges with a sharp knife, and prick the base with a fork. Chill the prepared pastry tin in the fridge while you make the filling.
5. Mix the butter and sugar in a bowl until well blended.
6. Add the eggs and mix well, then add the ground almonds and almond extract, and mix again.
7. Take the pastry tin out of the fridge, and sprinkle the base with extra 2 tbsp ground almonds.
8. Pour in the almond mixture and spread in an even layer.
9. Dot the strawberries around the mixture, pointing upwards, so they are poking out of the mix. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the top.
10. Bake in the oven on the hot baking tray for 30 minutes.
11. After 30 minutes, lower the temperature to 160C/Gas 3 and bake for another 30 minutes.
12. Take the tart out of the oven and leave on the hot tray until the tart is cooled completely.
13. Dust with icing sugar and serve.