Cherry & Coconut Bakewells
GBBO 2024 Bake Along, Week 5 - Pastry Week
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Hello and welcome to week 5 of our GBBO bake along! It’s pastry week in the tent, and this week there were just too many good options so I’m doing two bake alongs, cherry bakewells for free subscribers and a decadent hazelnut & chocolate Paris-Brest for paid subscribers which will be coming tomorrow!
I wanted to keep the frangipane tarts fairly simple, I’ve made hundreds of frangipane tarts over the years and while I usually love fancy, intricate patisserie I have to say that when it comes to frangipane tarts I think simplicity is best so today we’re going with classic flavours and a Mr.Kipling-esque design.
Ok let’s have a quick chat about the tasks before getting into the recipe…
Signature
I was happy to see frangipane tarts as a signature, they’re a classic for a reason! But I was quite surprised how many bakers struggled with this task, I would have thought that frangipane tarts would be something the bakers had made many times before. I think a lot of the issues came down to the blind baking and those perforated rings which, incidentally, I have beef with. They’re advertised as not needing any weights/baking rice when blind baking but, spoiler, most of the time this doesn’t work unless you’re a pro and have the perfect pastry recipe plus plenty of chilling time. I have a very extensive post on blind baking which I’m very proud of which you can read here. Gill’s tarts were the only ones that really stood out to me, I thought they were incredibly neat, and I really liked that she kept things simple.
Rhubarb, pistachio & cardamom tarts, Pear, ginger & date tart
Technical
I’ve actually never made filo pastry before so I’m not sure how I would have fared here. I feel like they could have given the bakers a bit more time considering the dough needed a long rest and a 40 minute bake, either way the spanakopitas all looked delicious, I think I might try this at home for a little weekend fun bake.
Showstopper
I love Paris-Brest, choux pastry filled with nutty mousseline? Yes please. For my bake along I will not be making an edible stand because I simply can’t be bothered, I did think it was an interesting challenge though and I couldn’t believe the variety of “building materials” used, I loved Christiaan’s and thought it looked incredibly professional, nougatine would have definitely been my choice for this build. I also liked Gill’s biscuit stand, she went simple but affective again and it paid off. If you want to have some fun with choux I’ve linked some posts below!
Éclair deep dive (free post), Coffee Éclairs (paid)
Cherry Bakewells
Ok let’s get into the bakewells! These can be as simple or as fancy as you like, I’ve included a jam recipe as well as instructions for icing and feathering but you can use store-bought jam and skip the icing for a much quicker and more simple tart.
A note on the baking before we get started. I saw a lot of the bake off contestants blind baking their frangipane tarts, I never blind bake mini frangipane tarts, I just don’t find it to be necessary, save yourself some time and just don’t bother. If you find that your frangipane is getting too much colour, you can just cover the tops with foil but to be honest, most of the time I’m too lazy to do this.
Ingredients - makes 12 small tarts, I used 8cm rings but use whatever tins you have.
Sour Cherry Jam (this recipe is also great with raspberry jam)
300g pitted morello cherries (save a bit of the juice for the icing)
130g caster sugar
3g powdered pectin mixed with of 10g caster sugar
Sweet Pastry
330g plain flour
35g ground almonds
Pinch of salt
100g icing sugar
200g cold butter
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract
Coconut Frangipane
100g soft butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs (100g)
50g ground almonds
60g desiccated coconut
20g plain flour
Pinch of salt
Pink Icing
100g icing sugar
20g cherry juice
White Icing
100g icing sugar
20g lemon juice
To Decorate
6 glacé cherries cut in half
Desiccated coconut , about 30g
Method - Sour Cherry Jam
Combine everything apart from the pectin and leave to macerate overnight (you can skip this stage if you need your jam fast!).
Bring to the boil and shower in the pectin and sugar mixture whilst stirring.
Reduce to a medium-low heat, it should be just bubbling.
Simmer until the temperature reaches the wrinkle test or 104°C/219.2°F.
Store in a Tupperware or jar until ready to use.
Method - Sweet Pastry (you can do this in a stand mixer or food processor)
Combine the flour, almonds, salt, icing sugar and butter and mix until there are no lumps of butter and the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, do not mix for too long or it will form a huge lump!
Add the egg and vanilla and mix until just combined.
Give it a quick kneed by hand to ensure there aren’t any lumps.
Form into two discs, this will help when rolling later!
Clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
When the pastry is fully chilled, roll to about 3mm thick and line your tart tins, this pastry is fine to re-roll if necessary.
Chill the lined tarts in the fridge or freezer for 30 minutes.
Method - Coconut Frangipane
This is such a small amount that I just do this by hand, I find it easiest with a whisk but make sure your butter is very soft!
Cream the butter and sugar until just starting to get pale.
Add the egg and mix to combine.
Add the dry ingredients and mix.
Method - Baking & Finishing
Pre-heat your oven to 180°C(fan)/360°F.
Fill the bottoms of the tarts with a tablespoon of jam followed by a layer of frangipane, the frangipane will rise and we want flat tops so don’t use too much, my tins needed 30g per tart.
Bake at 180°C(fan)/360°F for 20 minutes until golden brown, if you notice that the frangipane is colouring before the pastry you can cover the tops with foil for the final 5 minutes of the bake.
As soon as the tarts come out of the oven squash the tops down so that they’re completely flat by laying a sheet of kitchen roll or a clean tea towel over the top of them and gently pressing down.
Leave to cool.
Make the two icings, you might need to adjust the liquid content slightly, I found that every time I made it the consistency was slightly different, it should be thick but spreadable and liquid enough to flatten itself out when tapped on the table.
Spread a spoonful of icing on a tart and spread evenly over the frangipane, leave the pastry edges bare.
Pipe stripes on top and then feather (see gifs below)
These images are GIFs and must be viewed in browser or in app Repeat with all of the tarts, half with a pink base and half with a white base.
Leave to set for half an hour, don’t throw away the piping bag with the white icing!
Pipe white icing around the pastry edge and roll in dessicated coconut, top with half a glacé cherry and you’re done!
If you’re enjoying the bake along so far, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, it’s just £5 a month and gets you access to weekly recipes as well as my entire archive (nearly 100 recipes). Recipe development is my full time job so becoming a paid subscriber really helps to support me so that I can continue developing recipes and sharing my pastry knowledge, I’d love to have you! 🩷
Wow these are so beautiful✨💕