I do love a good bakewell, and believe me, this is a GOOD bakewell. The traditional raspberry/cherry is substituted for succulent honey and tart apple (if you don't like apples then apricots work equally well) with a delicious apricot glaze. This is a real showstopper and tastes just as good cold, served with a nice cup of tea, as it does warm, paired with my no churn salted caramel ice cream (a great desert for the end of a lovely meal; perfect for a dinner party).
Ingredients
For the pastry
250g plain flour
125g cold unsalted butter
75g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons of water
For the frangipane
150g ground almonds
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
105g caster sugar
75g honey
3 eggs
3 tablespoons plain flour
1 tsp almond extract
½ tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of sea salt
For the topping
2 English apples, sliced as thinly as humanly possible (be careful). If you’re not a fan of apples, you can use 4-5 apricots instead.
Juice of 1 lemon
1 heaped tbsp apricot jam
1 tbsp honey
Directions
For the pastry...
Place the butter, flour and sugar into a food processor and pulse until well blended and the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
Whisk the egg yolk and water in a bowl and then add slowly to the processor.
Blitz the mixture until it forms clumps or a ball, should take about 20 - 30 seconds.
Mould the pastry together into a flattened ball and then wrap in clingfilm, allow to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Grease a deep tart tin (approximately 24cm in diameter) with butter.
Lay out a large rectangle of cling film.
Unwrap the pastry and place the now chilled pastry in the middle of the sheet of clingfilm.
Lay another rectangle of clingfilm on top of the pastry and then use a rolling pin to roll out the pastry to a thickness of approximately 3-5mm (doing it in between 2 sheets of clingfilm stops any sticking and means that you don't need to use any excess flour, and it's a lot easier to clean up after!).
Lay the pastry over the tart case and gently press the pastry down into the tin.
Use a fork to prick the pastry all over.
Place the pastry in the freezer for 20-30 minutes (or until needed).
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
Cover the base of the tart with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans.
Bake blind in the oven for 15 minutes.
Remove the baking beans and greaseproof paper and return the pastry to the oven for another 5 minutes. The tart should be a light golden brown.
Leave to cool in the tin completely then set aside until ready to use (you can make this the day before and store in an airtight container).
For the frangipane...
Lower the oven temperature to 180 degrees C.
Place the sliced apples (or apricots) into the lemon juice and set aside until needed.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer for 3-5 minutes (you want them to be pale and fluffy).
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating in between each one.
Beat in the honey, almond and vanilla extract.
Add in the ground almonds, flour and a pinch of salt and mix again until well combined.
Spread the mixture over the cooled tart base.
Arrange the apple (or apricot) slices on top of the tart (make little 'bouquets' of the apple slices and push the centres of the 'bouquets' firmly into the almond frangipane).
Bake for 40 minutes, on the low shelf in the oven (check after 30 minutes, if it looks like its browning quickly cover with a sheet of tin foil and cook for the remaining 10 minutes).
Remove and allow to cool.
For the topping...
Gently heat the honey and apricot jam in a small saucepan.
Use a pastry brush to paint the jam mixture over the cooked tart.
Take a bow! I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.