Bakewell Tart

Now the good people of Bakewell will always claim that the rest of the world is wrong to regard the confection known as Bakewell tart has anything in common with the Bakewell pudding readily available in the town. It's difficult now to think of what else to call this other than Bakewell tart but I freely acknowledge if you ever do travel to the town of Bakewell, this is not what you will find there, if you come to my part of Norfolk, however, and I have enough notice (2 hours) it is what you will be offered with a cup of tea.

For this recipe you will need;
250g of good sweet pastry, I prefer paté brisée
180g of ground almonds
180g of caster sugar
180g of unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 medium eggs
80g of self raising flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoon of jam, seedless raspberry or apricot.

Begin by lining a 24cm flan tin with the pastry and bake it blind in a hot oven, 200C for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven, reduce the heat and when the temperature is down to 100C return the flan for 30 minutes to complete the cooking. It makes a big difference to have the pastry base fully cooked, a golden brown and fully dried out.
Make the filling by creaming together the butter and the sugar until they are pale and light in texture, add the eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly. Add the ground almonds, flour, salt and baking powder. Mix to a soft dropping consistency. Heat the oven to 180C.
Line the bottom of the pastry shell with the jam, spread out evenly before topping with the almond cake mixture. Cook in a moderate oven, 180 for 30 to 35 minutes until fully cooked. Allow to cool completely in the tin before removing, dust with icing sugar before serving.

Notes:
It makes such a difference to the finished cake if you go to the trouble of baking the pastry case blind; it's easy enough to do, line the flan tin with the pastry, prick the base with a fork several times, place a sheet of baking parchment on top of the pastry to hold either ceramic baking beans or some rice that you keep for the purpose, this prevents the pastry from rising during baking. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes before returning to the oven with the temperature turned down and the parchment and baking beans removed.
You can also produce a delicious version of this tart by using rhubarb jam and ground hazelnuts in place of ground almonds. Simply grind up 180g of toasted hazelnuts with 180g of caster sugar and proceed with the rest of the recipe, beating in the butter, eggs and finally the flour and baking powder.