Blueberry bakewell tarts and the bake off!

My newest reality TV obsession, amongst sooo many, is The BBC's  Great British bake off. An addictive cookery program where over the next eight weeks, 12 of the UK's keenest cooks compete to be crowned Best Amateur Baker. Each week, the contestants – young, old and from every corner of the country –  mix and bake their way through progressively tougher baking challenges. Their efforts are then meticulously scrutinized by the experts who inspect, prod and sample the baked goodies to decide who is the champ!

 My favourite form the start is Jason, (far left)

Hes a young student who is also so passionate about baking and is pretty witty. In last weeks 'pastry' episode he created mini Blueberry Bakewell tarts. Watching this program always gets me craving anything and everything they bake! So inspired by Jason's brilliant recipe and enthusiasm here is my Gluten free version!

I was kindly sent a parcel of Gluten free box mixes to try out by Mrs. Crimbles, they packaged me up a sponge dry mix and a short crust pastry mix. I decided to use and combine both of them to make a quick and easy Gluten Free tart! I only used half of each box as well so i can use the rest at my convenience for the next time my sweet tooth demands a comforting pudding.
Gluten Free Blueberry bakewell tart.
make a small tart for two!

Ingredients

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• 1/2 (100g) Mrs Crimbles sponge box mix ( with 1 egg white, half the butter called for and 2 tsp of water)
• 1/4 cup of fresh blueberries
• 1/2 (100g) Mrs Crimbles pastry mix (with half the butter and water the box calls for)  
• 1 tsp almond essence
• 2 tsp jam or preserve

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 190 degrees C
2. Weigh out half of the pastry mix (100g) and crumble butter into dry mix. rub with your fingers until it resembles a fine bread crumb, then add 2 tsp of water and combine with your hands until it forms a dough ball, allow to rest for a minute.
3. Dust a clean surface with GF flour and roll out pastry to 0.5 cmm tickness. Drape and tuck pastry into a greased tin or pie dish. remove excess pastry and neated edges with knife.
4. Cover pastry with grease proof paper and baking beans and bake the pastry crust blind in the oven for 15 mintues.
5. Whilst pastry is baking... Half  and Follow the box instructions for the sponge mix adding in almond essence and stirring in blueberries.
6. Remove grease proof paper and beans from pastry carefully and spread jam on the base, pour in sponge batter and return to the oven to bake for an extra 18 minutes.

Serve hot or cold with with custard or ice cream but definitely goes with a good ol cuppa tea.

fresh and hot outta the oven!

 Really, Really genuinely impressed with these Mrs Crimbles mixes! The pastry was pretty perfect, flaky and buttery but not crumbly or tough. Pastry is notoriously a problematic part of gluten free baking and this mix made it easy and trouble free! the sponge mix was also lovely, not too sweet and complemented the tarter blueberries.  The crumb was light yet moist and it rose very well (as you can see!) A big thumbs up. I cant wait to use the remainder of these mixes now!