Vegan raspberry bakewell tart
Vegan raspberry bakewell tart
I’ve managed to contain my sweet tooth for a while and steer clear of making sweet recipes, but I cracked once I saw beautiful raspberries at my green grocers. All I could think of was is how good they’d taste surrounded by sweet almond frangipane!
I’ve been wanting to make this twist on a bakewell tart for a while, but I wasn’t able to get raspberries in Greece, so I’ve been awaiting raspberry season rather eagerly this year. I think cherry bakewell tart is more traditional, although I asked a couple of British friends and they weren’t so sure. Their point of reference were those shop-bought Mr Kipling’s mini bakewell tarts, which, no offence, are a mockery of the real thing, if you ask me.
The truth is you could make this classic dessert with a whole host of fruit: raspberries, blackberries, sweet or sour cherries, peaches, plums, figs and even pears work well, but for me, personally, tart raspberries and a sweet almond filling is the best combo ever!
This tart isn’t difficult to make at all and since it works with virtually any summer fruit, you’ll have plenty of time to practise it in the coming months and I’m sure no one will complain.
- 240 g / 2 cups white pastry flour, sifted
- 2 tbsp icing / fine sugar OR maple syrup
- 90 g / 6 level tbsp (not melted!) refined coconut oil*
GLUTEN-FREE PASTRY
- 200 g / 1ยพ cups buckwheat flour
- 40 g / 4 tbsp cornstarch
- ยฝ tsp xantham gum
- 2 tbsp icing / fine sugar OR maple syrup
- 90 g / 6 level tbsp (not melted!) refined coconut oil*
FILLING
- 80 ml / 1/3 cup refined coconut oil or mild olive oil
- 125 g / 2/3 cup caster sugar, coconut sugar OR maple syrup
- 40 g / ยผ cup flour (I used this GF flour mix)
- 90 ml / ยผ + 1/8 cup aquafaba homemade / from a tin
- 200 g / 2 cups almond meal OR finely ground almonds
- ยฝ tsp almond essence
- 200 g fresh or frozen raspberries
- 1 tbsp cornflour / cornstarch (if using frozen fruit)
PASTRY
- Combine the flour, icing sugar, (plus cornstarch and xanthan gum if making GF pastry) in a large bowl. If using maple syrup instead of icing sugar, don’t add it just yet. Add the softened coconut oil and rub it into the dry ingredients with your fingers until your flour looks like breadcrumbs and there are no lumps of coconut oil left.
- If you are using maple syrup, add it now and the chances are that you will not need to add any water to bring the dough together. If using icing sugar, add cold water – be careful, do it gradually – how much water you’ll need depends on how absorbent your flour is. I added about 4 tbsp / ยผ cup. Combine all the ingredients into a dough gently, but do not knead (that’s important for the gluten version) or the pastry will be tough. Wrap it up in a piece of cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out between two sheets of baking paper until you get a circle large enough to cover your entire tart case, about 2-3 mm in thickness. Place the rolled-out dough over a tart case and gently line the inside of it with the pastry. Tuck the pastry in well, ensuring that it fits snugly into all the nooks and crannies. Trim the excess pastry with a sharp knife and patch any holes with the cut-off excess. If making gluten-free pastry (which tends to be more crumbly), you may be better off placing the crumbled pastry in the tart case and simply moulding the pastry with your hands to the shape of the tart tin – you do not need to worry about overworking the pastry as it contains no gluten.
- Pierce the bottom of the pastry with a fork in a few places and chill the pastry-lined tart case in the fridge for about another 60 minutes.
- 45 min into pastry chilling time, preheat the oven to 175ยฐ C / 350ยฐ F. Line the pastry case with a large piece of crumpled baking paper and fill with baking beads or rice for a blind bake.
- Blind bake the pastry for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and beads and bake for another 10 minutes.
FILLING
- While the pastry cases are baking, prepare the filling. Cream oil and sugar (or maple syrup) with an electric whisk. Next, whisk in the flour. Add aquafaba, small amount at aย time. Whisk well after each portion of aquafaba.
- Finally, gently fold in the almond meal and almond essence with a spatula. You should end up with a thick batter (it will be a bit less thick if you used maple syrup instead of sugar).
- Fill the pastry case with almond frangipane and use a silicon spatula to spread the filling evenly.
- Push as many raspberries as you can into the filling. It will rise during baking a fair bit so don’t worry if raspberries are sticking out. If using frozen raspberries, dip each raspberry into cornflour / cornstach first before pushing it into the filling as frozen fruit tends to ooze more water during baking.
- Bake the tart for about 45 minutes, until the filling is nicely browned. I found that the maple syrup filling tends to take a little longer in the oven (by 10 minutes or so). Remove from the oven and allow the tart to cool down before removing it from the tin and cutting it into slices. The top will crisp up nicely as the tart cools down.
This recipe has been adapted from my earlier frangipane recipe.
Great to hear - I hope your sister will enjoy it. It depends on the country I think, in the US almond flour is called almond meal as far as I understand. In the UK it's called almond flour or ground almonds. As long as what you have it finely ground almonds you should be absolutely fine. Ania
I'm vegan and so have not cooked/baked with eggs for years so it's hard for me to advise. My guess is two. Hope this helps. Ania
BUT, it was the filling that made this tart just perfect.
Yet another superb recipe from you.
Thanks. ๐
Thank you, I am so happy to hear that. I think a rich plant milk, like oat or soya and a bit of thickener (approximately 2-3 tsp) such as tapioca (or corn starch) will work well too. Hope this helps! Ania
The filling tasted amazing both before and after baking. It still wasn't browning after 55 minutes in the oven and the crust was starting to get overdone so I wound up taking it out at that point in time. I'm not sure what happened there, but despite the lack of browning/crispiness on top we thought it tasted really good after cooling and slicing it, just had to eat around the crust a little bit. It was very tender and moist but held its shape enough to slice, which was nice. Anyway, thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for your review. I am glad you enjoyed this recipe overall but sorry to hear that you weren't totally happy with the outcome. As for the crust, it sounds like you might have added too much water or overworked it. I tried to be as detailed as I could in my instructions without them being too verbose (as this recipe isn't meant as an introduction to making pastry per se). I have been thinking of making a separate post on shortcrust pastry technique so that I can link out to it from the recipe if someone needs extra guidance - sounds like I should get onto it sooner. As for the second issue, sounds like the pastry got a little too brown in the pre-baking stage, which caused the discrepancy. I'm not sure what to advise, perhaps it's to do with overhydration too - the excess water evaporated really quickly leading to quicker browning. I hope this helps! Ania
The only problem I found with this recipe was that the batter was too dry - not even wet enough to be packed together. I added a few tablespoons of water to get a thick batter, and the tart still came out absolutely deliciously. I would definitely make this recipe again - a real winner!
I added them at the end as decoration as was worried about them getting too brown. Hope this helps! Ania
Thanks so much for another excellent recipe !
I'm delighted to hear that you enjoyed the frangipane as that's the trickiest element to make vegan. As for the coconut aftertaste in the pastry, this is exactly why I recommend using odourless coconut oil, which has been steamed so that it does not taste of coconut at all. Hope this helps! Ania
I just want to let you know that I made this tart yesterday and it was.... divine!!! The crust was perfect, the sablรฉ was so delicate, light and crisp! Amazing! And the almond cream with the raspberries was divine!!! The Combination of all ingredients and the sweetness was perfect! We all loved it!! Thank you so much for sharing your amazing recipes with us! You are so talented! Much love to you guys!
Also when you mention 1/4 cup flour for the filling, is this just plain flour?
Anita
Yes, it's plain flour but a little bit finer than all purpose flour. You can, however, use all purpose plain flour too. Use the same flour for the filling. Hope that helps! Ania
Should the aquafaba be whipped before added when making filling?
Nope, no need for this application. Hope you'll enjoy the tart. x Ania
Thank you, I am pleased to hear that you are planning to make this. I hope it will go down well - my non-vegan friends always love it! It is baked on a standard (no fan) setting. I think that when it comes to recipe convention, the default is no fan. When fan oven is needed that needs to be clearly stated or otherwise stuff would burn to a cinder. Hope that helps and I hope you like my recipe. Ania
Thanks! I have not tried freezing it myself, but I am sure it does. There is only one way to find out ;) x Ania
I'm not a huge fan of buckwheat, can I just use gluten free all purpose flour for the pastry?
Thanks
Jenni
Simply place it in a air-tight box or protect from drying out in another way and you can store it either in the fridge or at room temperature. Hope that helps! Ania
I'm making this on the weekend, do you think it's better to make it and serve cooled on the day or would it be ok to make it the day before?
Thanks!
GG
I have not come across whole wheat pastry flour here in the UK, but having said that I never looked for it either. I suspect it's coarser than white flour (the entire grain including the husk is ground) so I would be careful about using it in shortcrust pastry. If you really want to try 50-50 to begin with. Hope that helps! Ania