A sure sign of a recipe being a winner is when half of it is gone before I even manage to get photos! I knew the other half would like Almond Slice, given his love for Mr Kipling Bakewell Slices
If I’m being completely honest, I’m not too big a fan of almonds in baking. I can happily munch through an entire bag of whole almonds but when it comes to baking with them, I just get reminded of marzipan which is something I am most definitely not a fan of! I’m not entirely sure what it is about marzipan but I just can’t seem to grow any degree of fondness for it…
That being said, even I could appreciate the simplicity of these lovely little slices. Of course my favourite part is the pastry base, smothered in raspberry jam. But my other half – the true almond slice fan – actually gave high praises of these little cakey-pastry slices; which for those of you who know him, you can appreciate that coming from him it is high praise indeed!
Granny’s Top Tips
♥ Blind baking your pastry isn’t essential but I highly recommend it to avoid a soggy bottom, which is otherwise guaranteed due to the jam layer on top of the pastry.
♥ Be generous with your jam layer. It’s the jam that really adds character to these little almond slices so don’t be stingy! And if you want to make your almond slice extra special, why not throw on a handful of fresh raspberries also?
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Ingredients
For the Pastry Base
- 225 g Plain Flour
- 100 g Butter
- 30 g Sugar
- 2-3 tbsp Cold Water
For the Sponge
- 190 g Seedless Raspberry Jam
- 75 g Butter
- 75 g Caster Sugar
- 75 g Ground Almonds
- 75 g Self-raising Flour
- 1 Egg
- 2 tbsp Milk
- Handful of Flaked Almonds
Instructions
For the Pastry
- (Make your pastry in advance.) Rub the butter and flour with your fingers in a large bowl. Once it resembles bread crumbs, add the sugar and mix until combined.
- Gradually add the cold water a spoonful at a time, continuing to mix with your hands, bringing together to form a dough. You may not need all the water, or you may need a little extra.
- Continue to mix the dough in your hands until well formed. Wrap in cling film and pop in the fridge for at least and hour to firm up before use.
For the Almond Slice
- Pre-heat your oven to 190°c (or 170° for a fan assisted oven) and grease a tray bake tin generously with some butter. A 20cmx20cm tin (or equivalent) is ideal.
- Remove your pre-made pastry for the fridge and roll on a floured surface to around 5mm thick. Transfer to your pre-greased tin, pushing the pastry into the edges. Trim the excess and line the pastry with some greaseproof paper before filling with baking beans. Blind bake the pastry for 5 minutes to give the bottom a head start and avoid a soggy pastry.
- Following the blind bake, remove the baking beans and top the pastry with the Raspberry Jam, evenly spreading over the pastry.
- In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the ground almonds, self-raising flour, egg and milk to the bowl and gently mix until combined into a batter.
- Pour the batter on top of your jam-topped pastry and evenly spread. Top with a generous handful of flaked almonds.
- Bake at 190°c (or 170°c for fan assisted ovens) for 20-25 minutes until golden and spongy in appearance.
- Once completely cool, using a sharp knife, cut into individual slices.
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mmmmmmm they look so good and remind off an exceedingly good cake maker! Although I am sure that yours taste much better and you get more in a slice! thanks for linking to #Bakeofthweek with these x
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Hello there, I tried to bake these almond slices but got it all wrong apparently :o/
Don’t know what went wrong exactly because I followed the recipe… Had to blind bake the pastry 15 minutes cause after 5′ it was still raw dough…. After baking the complete tray for 20 minutes the dough was still raw!!! Another ten minutes…. and another ten…. and another ten… Finally it looked baked but it tastes awful :'( All I taste (and smell) is dough, no almond, no jam, nothing but raw dough… What did I do wrong???
Sounds like your oven wasn’t at the correct temperature, also very important that the temperature is correct for the recipe BEFORE you start baking the pastry.. hope this is of some help.
5 minutes blind baking isn’t enough. Even with 8 and a few minutes without the beans and 35 minutes baking the pastry was still raw in the middle. Also is an egg missing from the batter mixture? With the exact measurements shown the batter was way too thick to spread let alone pour? Other recipes have way more liquid in them, I had to add more milk. A bit disappointing over all. I should have read the review that appears to have the same problem first.
Hi – Going to try these soon – Seems will need to blind bake much longer than stated, as seems to be a common problem! There IS an egg in the given sponge mixture though !
Hello
Well i followed the recipe and it was PERFECT !! I needed to bake the pastry base an extra 5 minutes and the whole tart an extra ten minutes but the result was perfect.
Many thanks, a taste of nostalgia !
Andrew, France
Perfect, absolutely perfect. Lovely recipe will be using it again.
As said previously, you do need to have the correct temperature. I’ve previously had problems with my oven and invested in a oven thermometer, only £4 ! Give it a go.
Can I use store bought almond paste?
Better than shop brought ones