Bakewell Pudding (or maybe not!)
I recently picked up a book in a local charity shop about 'Food of the British Isles'.It's a compilation of recipes from restaurants and cooks. I was especially interested in the Cake Section, as I've been wanting to try some of the more unusual British cake and pudding recipes for some time.
This one isn't very unusual, but thought I'd try it as it's called a Bakewell Pudding and not a Tart. In the book, the writer says says that a Pudding is made with puff pastry and the Tart with shortcrust. Is it that simple? I bet a lot of local people would disagree with this definition!
The writer made her puff pastry from scratch, but I bought mine, butter of course!
For the Pudding you need: 500g butter puff pastry, 3 tbspn raspberry jam, 150g butter, 150g caster sugar, 3 eggs plus a yolk, beaten, 150g ground almonds, zest of a lemon,2 tspn almond extract, 1 tbspn flaked almonds and some icing sugar to dust the top.
Preheat oven 190C/gas5 you need a 20cm deep tart tin, greased
Roll the pastry out to about 5mm, then use it to line the tart tin. Prick base with a fork and put in fridge for about 20 mins. Put some baking paper on the pastry and fill with baking beans or rice. Cook for 15 mins till pale golden, take out the beans and cook for another 5 mins.
Spread the jam onto the pastry.
Make the filling - cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Beat the yolk into the other eggs then add a bit at a time to the mixture. Fold in the ground almonds, lemon zest and almond extract.
Pour into the pastry case and level. Bake for about 30 mins, take pudding out of the oven and sprinkle with the flaked almonds then put back in the oven for another 10 mins or till set and golden. Sieve over some icing sugar while the pudding is still warm [ I didn't bother].
I know, it doesn't look any different from a Bakewell Tart, and it doesn't taste any different either! It has a good deep filling, and as I love any kind of almonds, this is a good dessert. Nice crumbly pastry, fruity jam, soft almond sponge and crunchy nuts. What's not to like, but I'll try and be more adventurous with the next recipe from the book!
Comments
Your recipe is definitely for a Bakewell tart, not a pudding! living very near to Bakewell for most of my life, I can't resist entering into the debate!
The difference is not so much in the pastry as the filling. A tart will have a large proportion of ground almonds in the mixture, producing a sponge or cake like effect. A pudding will have no almonds, or very few, possibly just some almond essence, producing a topping that is more like a custard. Recipes do vary, as for anything, but if you want to see the two side by side so you can spot the difference, there is a good comparison here:
http://www.whatsonbakewell.co.uk/bakewell-puddings-tarts
Your recipe seems to come from here: http://britishfood.about.com/od/specialty/r/Bakewell-pudding-recipe.htm and as you can see from the picture it is definitely a tart.
A more traditional pudding recipe can be found here:
http://www.peakdistrictonline.co.uk/bakewell-pudding-c10821.html
Just to add to the confusion, anything which seems to have jam and some kind of almond sponge in it is often described as being a "Bakewell something". Some people make what they call a Bakewell pudding which is jam in the bottom of a pudding dish with the almond sponge on top, no pastry. Others, myself included, make a Bakewell cake, which an almond sponge sandwiched together with jam. Neither are at all authentic......but delicious all the same!
My recipe came from the book I mentioned in my post, but perhaps they got it from the British food site? I didn't think that the difference between the tart and the pudding could really be as simple as pastry! But at least it started an interesting debate!
Looking into it has made me think that it's time I did make a Bakewell pudding. I'm not very keen on the shop bought ones and
I have tried quite a few, even the Duke's own puddings from the Chatsworth shop.......I feel a blog post coming on......!!