Mel came up to visit me in July and, being a lovely sunny day when I had strawberries in my fridge, naturally we stayed inside to bake. Bakewell Slice from Nigella’s Kitchen caught my eye and, though the recipe calls for raspberries, I prefer to use what I have to hand so strawberries it was.
Ingredients:
Base:
- 225g plain flour
- 60g icing sugar
- pinch of salt
- 225g soft unsalted butter
Filling:
- 150g soft unsalted butter
- 4 eggs
- 150g caster sugar
- 150g ground almonds
- 250g seedless raspberry jam
- 250g fresh raspberries
- 50g flaked almonds
Pre-heating the oven to 180°, put the flour, icing sugar, salt and butter in a food processor to make the base dough.
Spread the base over a greased, lined 30 x 20 x 5cm tin (Nigella recommends foil but this was a pain to remove – just use your usual baking paper). This is the most painful step in the process – the dough does not seem like it will spread over the tin. Use the back of a spoon or your hands, whatever is easiest.
Bake the base for 20 minutes, until browned and then set aside in the tin for 5 minutes.
While the base cooks, slice your strawberries (if applicable) in a leisurely fashion, enjoy some cider and gossip about everything and nothing. If however, you are feeling productive, or baking alone, I suggest you get on with making the filling.
Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Put the eggs, caster sugar and ground almonds in the food processor and process to a paste. Add in the cooled, melted butter and pulse briefly to finish mixing. Set this mixture aside and, with the base now cooled, spread the jam over it evenly.
Now layer the strawberries over the top.
Pour over the filling and finally finish with flaked almonds. Bake for 45 minutes, but test after 35. It should be puffy and golden brown.
This was a delicious slice, but I think it really needed the fresh raspberries to add enough flavour for the amount of base and filling in the recipe. In this regard, I would not consider it a favourite recipe as I like flexibility and robust flavours. However, the filling/topping was beautiful and would be a great match with fresh raspberries. This recipe did remind me of my grandmother’s raspberry slice, as it smelled so lovely while it was baking, just like hers. It inspired me to ask for that recipe, and I’m very glad I did; it was as good as I recalled, easier to make and with ingredients I had to hand. Intrigued? It will be posted here tomorrow…
A Tale of Two Kitchens 