Traditional Bakewell Pudding

Bakewell pudding©Kevin Ashton 2020

April 23rd 2020 marks the 5th Anniversary of this blog on WordPress, with over 6,656,067 hits in that time.  Before the lockdown I was still juggling work as a freelance chef, as well as teaching and writing. Now I’m at home decorating and trying to put together a cookery course via Zoom.

April 23rd is also St George’s Day, the patron saint of  England, so I thought I’d celebrate by doing a very English recipe. Most UK readers will be familiar with Bakewell Tart but not Bakewell Pudding. Created in the Derbyshire town of Bakewell in the 19th century,  the original dish had a puff pastry crust instead of a short crust pastry of the version most of us are familiar with. The other big difference is the texture of the filling which in this recipe is egg-ier and lighter, making this Bakewell dessert the number one in my book.

Ingredients
350g (14oz) puff pastry
75g (3oz) unsalted butter
90g (3 ½ oz) caster sugar
5 large eggs
125g (4 ½ oz ground almonds)
Few drops of almond essence
4 Tbsp seedless raspberry jam
125g (4 ½ oz) fresh raspberries

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 190 C if fan assisted or 200 C if the oven has no fan (gas mark 6).
  2. Lightly butter a 10 inch quiche dish and roll the pastry out until it is about 4mm thick.
  3. Once you have lined your dish with the pastry don’t trim off the excess, at this point because puff pastry does shrink.
  4. Gently spread the raspberry jam over the base of the pastry then use ¾ of the fresh raspberries and crush them gently with a dessertspoon. and spread them on top of the jam.
  5. Cream the sugar with the butter and almond essence until white and fluffy.
  6. Gradually add one beaten egg at a time, then add a little of the ground almonds, whisking on a medium to low speed.
  7. Continue to alternate between the eggs and ground almonds until you have mixed them all in.
  8. Pour the mix into the pastry case, then use a wet palette knife to gently spread evenly.
  9. Now use a very sharp knife to trim off the excess pastry and crimp the edges.
  10. Bake in the centre shelf of the oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the filling is set and brown.

To Serve
Dust lightly with icing sugar and decorate with the remaining raspberries.
Serve warm with custard or single cream, or cold as a cake.

Support Local Food Producers
British food and British Ingredients have gone through a complete metamorphosis in the last 15-20 years.  Britain is awash with farmers markets selling quality grown and produced ingredients to a very savvy foodie public. These markets are more than just a place to buy great food; they are vibrant social gatherings where foodies can swap information and ideas….that was until the virus happened. Since the lockdown small artisanal food producers, particularly ones that focused on supplying restaurants rather than supermarkets, are struggling to survive.

The Hairy Bikers episode
If you’re British you probably have heard of the Hairy Bikers and their various TV cooking shows over the years. These guys are not chefs, just lucky enough to be “discovered” because they were two northern guys who rode motorcycles and liked cooking.

I created my Bakewell Pudding  recipe originally for my Sunday newspaper column, then later in 2007 republished it on my original blog which I started in 2006.

But then in 2012, I noticed that the a BBC Hairy Bikers Bakewell Pudding recipe suddenly leapfrogged my recipe in the google rankings so I was curious to take a look why?

I was shocked when I realised that the recipe on the BBC Good Food site was in-fact a plagiarized word for word copy of my recipe, I did spot checks and found two of my recipes used in this way.  So I set about finding the PR agency that represented the Hairy Bikers and told them to take my recipes down or I would sue. Of course it took numerous emails to get them to respond, but eventually they took my plagiarized work down. They blamed the theft on two over enthusiastic interns, who were never named and apologised profusely.

So when I started this blog I had always intended to republish all of my recipes, but life gets in the way. I still post content on my other food blogs, have you seen them?

Blog posts from my old food blog https://wannabetvchefoldblogposts.wordpress.com/

If you are just starting out learning how to cook then try this. https://cheapandeasystudentrecipes.wordpress.com/

Traditional Bakewell Pudding (serves 8) © Kevin Ashton 2006

39 thoughts on “Traditional Bakewell Pudding”

  6. You are awesome. And you bake a pudding well!
    Clearly this is the not the cooked pudding I used to make.
    And you are now decorating, due to the stay home orders.
    Multi-directional creativity is quite an inner resource, isn’t it.

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  18. Kevin, this cake looks so amazing! I love raspberry cakes, because raspberries have been the real and true summer berries for me since I was a child. We had bushes in the garden and we could also pick them at the edge of the forest. The taste is incomparable. Thanks for the nice recipe!
    Greetings from the bauetiful Rhine-Highlands/ Germany…
    Rosie

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