Vegan Bakewell Tart

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: British

Keyword: Bakewell Tart, Baking, Dessert, Nut Free, Nut Free Desserts, Pastry, Vanilla Sponge, vegan, Vegan Baking, Vegan Buttermilk

To begin, preheat your ovento 180°C/350°F.
Next, generously dust a clean work surface, your rolling pin and the shortcrust pastry with flour to prevent any sticking.
Roll out the pastry so it’s large enough to fit your pastry dish.
Carefully lay the pastry into the dish. Try not to stretch the dough too much as this often leads to the dough shrinking when baked.
In order to get a perfectly shaped edge on the pastry case, we’re going to leave some of the pastry overhanging. If you have a lot of overhanging pastry, you should tear off a little bit as gravity will take hold and end up tearing the pastry if the overhang is too heavy. So, leave a good 3cm of overhang all the way around the pie dish and we’ll neaten out the edge later.
Place the parchment paper inside the pastry dish. Top Tip: Scrunch up the parchment paper, unravel it and then place inside the pastry dish. This will stop it from rolling itself back up and make it easier to place the baking beans.
Pour the baking beans inside the pastry dish.
Blind bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, add the margarine and caster sugar.
Cream the margarine and caster sugar together. You can either beat together with a wooden spoon or an electric mixer. Initially, the mixture will almost resemble breadcrumbs. After about 2 minutes, it will come together smoothly.
Add the vegetable oil and aquafaba with the vanilla extract, if using. Whisk for about a minute. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Next, we’ll add the flour and buttermilk alternately. The best way to do this is to add ⅓ of the flour, beat it into the mixture, and then add half of the buttermilk and beat until smooth. Add the next 1/3 of flour and beat, then the rest of the milk and mix until smooth. Lastly, add the remaining flour and beat together until the mixture is just combined, but don’t overmix.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl again and set aside.

Remove the pastry dish fromthe oven.
Carefully lift the parchment paper (with all the beans) out of the dish and set aside to cool – beware the baking beans are very hot when straight from the oven.
To cut off the excess pastry and create the perfect edge, hold your knife perpendicular to the edge of the pastry dish and cut in a ‘sawing’ motion up and down all the way around the edge of the dish. Ideally you would use either a small paring knife or a straight-sided eating knife – you don’t want a serrated edge as it won’t cut as well. Don’t forget you can view this recipe in its entirety over on our Instagram Stories!
Next, pierce all over the base of the tart with a knife or fork. This is to prevent large air bubbles from forming.
Place the tart back in the oven for a further 5 minutes without the baking beans or parchment. If any air bubbles do form at this stage, you can gently press them down with a knife or fork for a smooth base.
Spread the jam of your choice all over the base of the tart.
Then, pour over the vanilla sponge mixture.
Place back in the oven for a further 25-30 minutes. You can tell when the sponge is cooked by poking into the sponge with a skewer. If the skewer comes out completely clean, then it’s baked!
Allow the tart to cool!
To serve, dust all over with icing sugar or follow the instructions below for a thick icing.