Bloggers Bake Along to GBBO: Mary Berry's Apricot Frangipane Tart

Before we start with the recipe by my absolute baking idol, Mrs Berry herself, I have to announce that we got Star Baker again last week in the Great Bloggers Bake Off 2015 as hosted by Jenny of Mummy Mishaps for our Bzzzzy Bee Dairy Free Ice Cream Roll! Granted it was because no one else attempted the ice cream roll, but I like to think we would have gotten it anyway!

I was very surprised that no one else attempted the ice cream roll as it seemed the obvious choice for me, but was very happy to see my name in the Star Bakers round up post again...

This week I decided to make a Frangipane tart. Ever since the Bake Off began and I first saw this mysterious tart I have wanted to try my hand at one, so when I saw it was in this weeks episode I knew without a doubt I would make one. As mentioned above this apricot frangipane tart is from the great Mary Berry herself, and I found this recipe here. 

I was surprised to see that for this week's bake there were only a few ingredients, much less than I have used in the past few weeks...

I started by making the short crust pastry, which thankfully I have made several times before, so I wasn't at all stressed about. For some reason this recipe doesn't say anything about chilling the pastry before rolling it out, so I didn't bother. It also doesn't say anything about blind baking it, so again I just did as I was told and didn't bother.

Once that was done I moved onto the frangipane, which is made by creaming butter and sugar together, then mixing in beaten egg, before finally stirring in the ground almonds and almond extract. This honestly smelt amazing, and I just wanted to stuff it into my face, however I just about managed to restrain myself!

Next I drained my two tins of apricot halves and then dried them individually with paper towels. Then I careful placed them onto my pastry base, before carefully spooning on the frangipane and smoothing it out. Then I popped it into the oven for 45 minutes. I check it at 30 mins to make sure it wasn't browning too much, and to pop some foil on top to ensure the pastry didn't burn.

Once it was baked I made up a quick icing using icing sugar and some of the syrup I saved from the drained apricots and dripped it on in a zig zag pattern.

There we have it my Apricot Frangipane Tart, I must say considering it was the first frangipane tart that I had ever tried, it was seriously yummy, and I already can't wait to make another!