Raspberry lemon Curd Bakewell Tart

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Crispy, buttery, raspberry citrus explosion!

My mum bought me a gorgeous new blue glass cake stand and I wanted to make something to put on it. 'Wouldn't a lovely bakewell tart be nice', I thought. At the same time, Lu expressed her hankering for some lemon-curd related dessert, during a workday email. I did some research on my favorite food related spotting site (not to be named as in seldom takes our photos! Grr!) and it seems that the raspberry-lemon combination is a classic and has been used many a time before my fevered and hungry imagination dreamed it up.

I think the pastry was the real winner of this concoction. The whole thing was delish... but.... The pastry... *sigh*... crunchy and crispy and almondy.... definite pastry win!

Raspberry and lemon curd bakewell tart

For the pastry:

125 g plain flour

75g unsalted butter

25g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon almond essence

For the Lemon Curd:

2 eggs

2 1/2 oz caster sugar

1 1/2 oz unsalted butter cut into cubes

juice and zest of 1 lemon

For the topping:

150g unsalted butter, at room temperature

150g caster sugar

3 eggs

120g ground almonds

1/2 teaspoon almond essence

1 handful flaked almonds

1 small punnet fresh raspberries

Start by making the pastry. Using your finger tips, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and mix it about. Then add the egg yolk and the almond essence and bring the whole lot together using your hands. If its too dry, add a tablespoon of cold water, but I didn't find this necessary. Chill the pastry for an hour if you have time. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface and press it into a greased circular spring-form tin. Line this with some greaseproof paper and fill it with baking beans. bake in a preheated over at about 160c for 15 mins or so. Be careful as the edges can burn quite easily. Take it out and remove the beans and the paper, brush the pastry with egg white ( you will have one left over from making the pastry) and bake for a further 5 mins or until it is cooked. You are not aiming for it to be totally brown and done, just for the pastry to go opaque and crumbly all over.

While this is happening make your lemon curd.

Lemon Curd:

Combine the eggs, sugar and butter together in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Turn on the stove to the lowest possible heat and stir until the butter is melted. The aim here is to make sure the eggs don't cook and scramble, so keep the heat as low as possible, and even remove the pan from the heat at intervals. When the butter is melted and the sugar dissolved, add the lemon juice and zest. The mixture will turn opaque. Keep on the heat and continue stirring until the sauce goes nice and thick, so that it coats the spoon in a nice spreading consistency. This should take about 10 mins. Transfer the curd to a bowl and chill until needed ( you can make double this amount and use the extra for whatever else you like)

When the pastry shell is cooked, take it out of the oven and leave it to cool. Spread the lemon curd all over the base of the pastry shell.

Now make the topping:

Cream together the butter and caster sugar with an electric whisk until the mixture is light yellow and fluffy. Fold in the eggs one at a time, sprinkling in a tablespoon of ground almond after each addition, to keep the mixture from curdling. Now gently fold in the rest of the almond and the almond essence.

Pour this mixture over the lemon curd in the pastry shell. The curd might rise up the edges of the shell a bit so make sure that the curd is 'sealed in' by completely covering it with the topping, right to the edges. Then arrange the raspberries in a circular pattern on top, pushing them in to the mixture so that only half of each berry is visible.

Bake in your preheated oven at 160c. After about 20 minutes, take it out and sprinkle the almonds over the top. Then bake for a further 20 minutes until the tart is set in the middle and firm to touch.

Absolutely delicious! God, I wish I had some right now!

PS: if you want to make a delicious lemon tart, make the same pastry without the almond essence, and make twice the amount of lemon curd. bake the pastry shell as above, add the prepared lemon curd, and bake the whole thing at about 180c for 20 mins or so, until the lemon filling is set. this is also absolutely wonderful and a bit less work! i might have to make one soon!