Me: “Hello, Shine? What’s on your Dessert Menu tonight?”
Shine: “Lemon Bakewells.”
Me: “We’ll be right over!”
Shine’s Patissier, Liv Ehrhardt, has created her take on the historic British Bakewell Tart with a deconstructed Lemon Bakewell Tart that’s plated with balsamic roasted blueberries, lemon curd, white chocolate mascarpone mousse, and dollops of whipped cream topped with dainty White Chocolate crunch Pearls.
NOTES: 1. The mascarpone mousse is encased in delicate white chocolate shells. 2. That’s an absolutely delicious baked sesame crisp accent behind the Tart. 3. Not sure what’s in the whipped cream dollups, but it wasn’t your everyday whipped cream.
I’m telling you, my sister and I were in heaven. My sister had a Lemon Drop Martini with hers (said it’s the best she’s had), but I wanted to taste nothing but each part of the dessert on its own, as well as mixed with others, so I stuck with water.
What is a Bakewell Tart? Its creation is generally thought to have been a mistake. Mrs. Greaves, landlady of the White Horse Inn (gone now) in the Derbyshire town of Bakewell, England, asked her cook to create a jam tart. Instead of mixing almond paste and jam into the pastry, the cook spread the mixture on top, creating an egg custard resembling a pudding. So, it was originally called a Bakewell Pudding.
It’s thought that early in the 20th century it became the Bakewell Tart when the recipe was modified, replacing the egg custard in the pudding with frangipane
Some say it dates from 1820. Some say 1860. It definitely dates back to at least 1845 when the recipe first appears in the “Modern Cookery for Private Families” cookbook by Eliza Acton.
Back to Liv! The actual Bakewell Tart portion of her “Lemon Bakewells” dessert is two layers of what tasted like crumbly, buttery shortcrust pastry, with fruit jam in the middle. Not sure if there was frangipane with the jam? I admit to being so intrigued and happy with the dessert that I became immersed in trying bites of various taste and texture combinations.
Interesting Tid-Bits: 1. August 11th is National Bakewell Tart day in Great Britian. 2. Many people are so enamored with the Tart and its history, they travel to Bakewell.
Hope Liv keeps this one on the menu for a while!
If any of you Home or Pro Chefs out there have corrections or additions to the Bakewell Tart info here, definitely let me know. I hadn’t heard of the Tart before, but was so fascinated by the dish, it inspired me to do a deep dive into its history.
