Vegan bakewell tarts

Vegan bakewell tarts

Vegan bakewell tarts

We are still in the middle of a summer heatwave here in Greece, so I was hoping to go without switching the oven on until it gets cooler (erm…October?), but cherries (one of my favourite fruits) are in season and I had to bake something with them!

I love cherries and I love almonds and I’ve been wanting to make a cherry frangipane (or vegan bakewell tarts as they’re known in the UK) for a while now. My first attempt was a bit scary – the frangipane mixture exploded during baking and then solidified into a sticky sugary lace all over the muffin tray – it took me several attempts to clean that stuff off.

I did not expect such a poor result and was a bit stressed as we’ve had so much on recently that I didn’t start experimenting until Wednesday afternoon (I know!) and if I didn’t crack it, there would be no recipe today.

It took me three more goes to get the result I was after and I’m really pleased with the final product. Duncan pronounced it possibly his favourite thing I’ve made since I started the blog so I must be onto something here.

cherries for Vegan bakewell tarts

Vegan bakewell tarts side on

Vegan bakewell tarts cross section

Vegan bakewell tarts

makes
6
PREP
30 min
COOKING
50 min
makes
6
PREPARATION
30 min
COOKING
50 min
INGREDIENTS

PASTRY CASES

  • 180 g / about 1½ cups white, all-purpose flour, sifted
  • a pinch of salt
  • 2 tbsp icing sugar
  • 45 ml / 3 tbsp olive oil or unmelted coconut oil

FRANGIPANE FILLING

METHOD

PASTRY CASES

  1. Combine sifted flour and icing sugar in a large bowl. Add olive oil and rub it into the dry ingredients with your hands. Finally, add water – be careful, do it gradually – how much water you’ll need depends on how absorbent your flour is. Combine all the ingredients into a dough gently, but do not knead. Wrap it in a piece of cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.
  2. Remove the dough from the fridge and divide into 6 portions. Roll each portion out between two sheets of baking paper until you get a rough circle, about 2 mm in thickness. Place the rolled-out dough over a muffin hole (I used a 12 hole regular muffin tin for my tarts) and gently line the inside of the hole with the pastry. Trim the excess pastry with a sharp knife. Repeat with the remaining holes.
  3. Chill pastry-lined tin in the fridge for about 60 mins.
  4. 45 min into pastry chilling time, preheat the oven to 175° C / 350° F. Line the pastry cases with pieces of baking paper or muffin liners and fill with baking beads or rice.
  5. Blind bake the pastry for 10 mins. Remove the paper and beads and bake for another 5 mins.

FRANGIPANE FILLING

  1. While the pastry cases are baking, prepare the filling. Cream oil and sugar with an electric whisk. Next, whisk in flour. Finally add almond extract and aquafaba, one tablespoon at a time. Whisk well after each portion of aquafaba.
  2. Now fold in ground almonds with a spoon. You should end up with a thick almond batter.
  3. Divide almond batter between pastry cases and place half a cherry on top of each filling – do not press it into the filling much as the filling will rise during baking and you want the cherries to remain visible.
  4. Bake the tarts for about 30-35 minutes, until the filling is nicely browned. Remove from the oven and allow the tarts to cool down before removing them from the mould.

NOTES
*For this particular application, aquafaba (chickpea brine) should resemble an egg white in consistency so I recommend making it yourself – here is how. If you must use aquafaba from a tin of chickpeas, pour it into a pot and reduce on the stove by about 2/3. Cool before using to achieve thick, gelatinous aquafaba.

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NUTRITIONAL INFO
calories
422
21%
sugars
16 g
18%
fats
24 g
35%
saturates
3 g
14%
proteins
9 g
18%
carbs
41 g
16%
*per tart
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5.0
5 reviews, 19 comments
REVIEWS & QUESTIONS
Anupa Roper:
This recipe was easy to follow and gave amazing results! I topped some of my tarts with raspberries instead of cherries and they were lovely. I used tinned aquafaba but will definitely try making some from fresh next time
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks so much, I'm delighted to hear that you enjoyed these! This is quite an old recipe, I do have a new one for a larger raspberry bakewell tart in case you are interested. x Ania
Laura:
Hey, big fan of all your recipes, everyone I've tried always comes out amazing! Thank you :). Question: when you give the oven temp in celsius are you working with a fan or convection oven?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Laura,
    Thank you for your kind words about my recipes, I'm really happy to hear that. With regards to your question, I am a bit confused - isn't convection oven a fan one? Anyway, I have a regular (smeg) oven and pretty much all my recipes are done with a fan function switched off unless stated otherwise. I created some recipes in a rental accommodation where my oven was very basic and the fan was on automatically (there was no option to switch it off), but I mentioned that the temperature is for fan setting whenever this was the case. Hope this helps. Ania
Yingcian li:
what is all purpose flour ?it is Low-gluten flour?
    Ania
    Ania:
    No, it's regular white wheat flour used for many purposes (hence the name) like baking cakes, making pancakes, thickening sauces etc. Hope this helps! Ania
Jess:
These look great! Do you think the recipe would work as one big tart, instead of 6 small ones, as well?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Jess,
    Yes, absolutely! Here is the recipe adapted for a single, large tart! Hope you'll enjoy it! x Ania
Jess @ Living on leaves:
Wow!! These look so good, definitely going to try them!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks, Jess! :) Ania
lillian:
Hi! I just made these beautiful looking tarts. They look fab and the filling taste awesome, but the crust came out too hard. What did I do wrong? Is it possible to skip blind baking them? Thanks.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Lillian,
    Glad to hear you liked the filling, shame about the crust. It sounds like the dough might have been handled too much and gluten activated in the flour making the pastry though. Shortcrust pastry, whether vegan or non-vegan, requires minimal handling for that very reason. As for your question, I haven't tried, but you could always test on one tart and see how it works out. Good luck and please let me know how you got on. Ania
Roshni:
I tried the recipe, something just didn't quite work out. My filling turned to a thick dough, more then a cake time filling. 120 grams of ground almond flour was too much. And I tried to find another way to rectify it. I'm not quite sure where it went wrong, I used coconut oil and sugar; which do not really "cream" like butter. The sugar just tried to dissolve into the oil. The aquafaba was tin, and it didn't whip up or anything either. But too much flour is what killed the filling I think.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi Roshni,
    I'm sorry to hear that you had trouble with this recipe. Did you actually fill the tart cases and bake the filling? As I said in the instructions the batter IS MEANT to be thick so what you've described isn't anything to worry about yet. Aquafaba isn't meant to be whipped either, just added to the ingredients as is. The ratios are definitely correct as my latest recipe for pistachio frangipane tarts is based on this recipe and it worked well. Ania
      Roshni:
      Thank you for the quick response. I think it may of been my ground almond flour. I weighed it, but I think it was my flour that made it overly thick and turned it into more of a dough. But I'm going to try again another time. But the taste and methods was good. Thank you!
        Ania
        Ania:
        No worries! Yes, the almond meal needs to be quite fine, I use coffee grinder rather than food processor if I cannot find ready-made flour in shops. Hope it works out better next time! :) Ania
modflowers:
Looks great! Must try experimenting with aquafaba - it's on my to do list!
Just one point though - it's not truly a bakewell tart without a layer of jam between the pastry and the frangipane!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks and yes, aquafaba is amazing and addictive to work with. Good luck!
Cat Collars:
Love the blog post above, thank you!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks :)
Jeannie:
These look delicious! I've been getting cherries from our local CSA for the last couple of weeks. This would be a great way to use them. Thank you.
    Ania
    Ania:
    Aw, thanks so much! Yes, perfect way to use cherries, I agree! :)
Sally:
These look amazing! Definitely saved for later!!!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thank you, Sally! So pleased to hear that :)
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