Bakewell Pudding

5 from 4 votes

Bakewell pudding is a truly classic British dessert originating from Derbyshire. It's an ensemble of puff pastry, jam and a rich & buttery egg custard topping enhanced with a few other ingredients, including ground almonds. It's a real treat guaranteed to get diners talking when it's served.

Prep Time45

Cook Time55

Total Time1 40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: British, East Midlands, Midlands Food

Diet: Vegetarian

Servings:

Calories: 379kcal

Author: Jane Coupland

Equipment

1 x shallow pie plate approximately 23cm (9-inch) diameter and 3.5cm deep

Ingredients

For the Rough Puff Pastry

175 g Plain flour all purpose
140 g Butter cold
¼ teaspoon Salt
120 ml Water ice-cold

For the jam layer

4 tablespoons Apricot jam or alternative jam of your choice
50 g Candied citrus peel a mixture of orange and lemon is ideal

For the egg custard filling

120 g Butter
120 g Icing sugar
30 g Ground almonds
1 Egg medium
4 Egg yolks medium
⅛ Teaspoon Ground nutmeg
¼ Teaspoon Rosewater
¼ Teaspoon Almond extract

Instructions

Make the pastry

Divide the butter into 4 portions.
Put the flour and salt into a bowl and stir then cube 1 portion of the butter and rub it into the flour using your fingertips.
Pour in ¾ of the water and use a blunt knife to mix everything into a soft dough. Add more of the water if necessary (do not add so much that the dough turns sticky).
Sprinkle a light dusting of flour onto the worktop and roll the dough out into a long rectangle approximately 4mm thick. Cube another portion of the butter and scatter it over ⅔ of the dough, leaving the final ⅓ empty.
Now fold the empty third of the dough over the top of the dough to bring it to the centre.
Fold the other end of the pastry over the top, then turn the pastry 90 degrees.
Roll the pastry into an oblong again and repeat the folding in steps 5-6 (but do not add more butter at this stage). Repeat once more, then cover the dough and chill for 20 minutes.
Repeat steps 4-7 twice more to incorporate the 2 remaining portions of butter.
Chill the pastry for 1 hour in the fridge then roll it out to around 2-3mm thickness and use it to line a shallow pie plate and return it to the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up. Slide a bakibg sheet into the oven and preheat it to 180C/ 350F whilst the pastry chills.
Prick the base of the pastry with a fork then line the pastry with parchment paper, fill it to the top with dried pulses (e.g. lentils and small beans). Transfer the tin to the oven, placing it on the hot baking sheet and blind bake the pastry for 15 minutes
Remove the pulses and baking parchment from the pastry and spread the jam over it the base of the pastry case. Chop the candied peel finely and scatter it over the jam.

Make the egg custard filling

To clarify the butter put it into a small pan and melt it gently, cooking until a white foam appears on the top. Use a metal spoon to carefully remove this foam and discard it. Pour the melted butter slowly into a heatproof jug. As you pour you will notice creamy white milk solids sitting in the bottom of the pan. Do not let these pass into the jug. Discard them too.
Put the icing sugar, ground almonds and nutmeg into a bowl. Pour in the clarified butter and beat, using electric beaters, until combined.
Now add the whole egg, egg yolks, rose water and almond extract. Beat for a further 2-3 minutes until the mixture looks pale.
Pour the egg mixture over the jam and citrus peel.
Place the pie plate on the bottom shelf of the oven (on the hot baking sheet) and bake for 20 minutes. Move it up to the middle shelf and bake for a further 20 minutes until the top looks well-risen and dark golden in colour.
Allow the Bakewell pudding to cool for around 45 minutes before cutting into it. Do not serve this pudding straight from the oven as it should not be served hot.

Notes

If you’re intending to use store-bought pastry you’ll need around 350-400g of puff pastry.
Put a baking sheet into the oven as it warms up and place the pie plate on it throughout the cooking process. It helps ensure that the base of the pudding is nicely cooked and crisp rather than soggy.
Blind baking the pastry is also necessary to avoid a soggy bottom.
When butter is clarified, the water and milk solids are removed and the result is a purer butter that adds depth of flavour to the final baked product. I’ll pretend not to notice if you decide to skip this step and simply melt the butter before beating it into the sugar.
It is normal for the filling in a Bakewell pudding to puff up as it bakes and then collapse when it is out of the oven.
Leftovers should be covered and stored in the fridge. Reheat in a low oven for 10 minutes.
Bakewell pudding does not freeze well. The egg custard filling turns rubbery.

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